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THE   SOUL  OF   NAPOLEON 


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-1/  A'<. //<//•.,  J  A. 


THE   REAL   NAPOLEON 
Front  an  eiigrmiiig  by  Vigiieiix 


THE    SOUL    OF 

NAPOLEON 


BY 


HAMIL  GRANT 

AUTHOR  OF  "  SPIES  AND  SECRET 
SERVICE";  EDITOR  OF  "THE  LAST 
DAYS  OF  THE   ARCHDUKE   RUDOLPH" 


PHILADELPHIA 

GEORGE   W.  JACOBS   &   CO. 

PUBLISHERS 


PRINTED   IN   GREAT   BRITAIN    BV   THE   RIVERSIDE    PRESS   LIMITED 
EDINBURGH 


NOTE  ON  THE  GABRIELLI  PORTRAIT 
OF   NAPOLEON 

We  invite  the  reader's  attention  to  the  so-called. 
Gdbrielli  portrait  of  Napoleon,  executed  by  Vigneucc, 
and  here  presented  as  a  frontispiece.  This  portrait 
was  emphatically  declared  by  the  relatives  of  the 
Corsican — including  the  Emperor's  mother,  his 
sisters,  and  his  uncle,  Cardinal  Fesch — to  have  been 
the  only  one  which  bore  anything  like  a  truthful 
resemblance  to  their  august  kinsman.  Prince 
Gabrielli,  its  original  owner,  and  a  distinguished 
contemporary  and  visitor  of  Napoleon,  attached 
great  value  to  the  work  on  this  account.  As  will  be 
seen,  it  bears  small  resemblance  to  accepted  portraits 
of  the  Emperor. 

The  majority  of  the  artists  who  have  transmitted 
to  us  the  traditional  face  of  the  Conqueror — ascetic, 
severe  and  somewhat  scowling — sought,  it  would 
seem,  to  flatter  Napoleon,  regarding  whose  early 
Classical  obsession  they  were  fully  informed,  by 
giving  to  portraits  of  their  illustrious  sitter  those 
attributes  of  feature  and  expression  with  which 
sculptors  represent  Romans  of  the  heroic  age.  The 
portrait  by  Vigneux  dates  from  1807,  ivhen  Napoleon 
had  well  outgrown  his  worship  of  Antiquity. 
Genius,  we  may  be  certain,  in  any  case,  has  no 
specific  facial  type. 

H.  G. 


"Le  plus  bel  eloge  de  cet  homme 
extraordinaire  c'est  que  chacun 
veut  en  parler,  et  que  tous  ceux 
qui  en  parlent,  n'importe  comment, 
croient  de  s'agrandir." 

Pozzo  DI  BORGO. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  I 

PAOB 

The  Genesis  or  Napoleon  .  .  .17 

The  Rule  of  Heredity — Alan  the  Supersimian — Role  of  the 
Spinal  Column — A  Cynical  Truism — Napoleon's  Splendid 
Equipment — Lord  Acton's  View — Social  Origins  of  the 
Bonapartes — Their  Middle-class  Status — The  Nursery  of 
Fame — Corsica  and  its  Natives — Napoleon's  Regard  for 
his  Island  Home — Bonaparte's  Ligurian  Avcestry — King 
Theodore  of  Corsica — His  Relationship  to  the  Bonapartes — 
Paoli  and  Bonaparte  pire — The  Bonapartes  as  Men  of  Law 
— A  Lawyer's  Importance  in  Ajaccio — Ancestral  Preten- 
sions of  Bonaparte  pire — Phenomenal  Types  and  New 
Blood — Factious  of  the  Mala  and  Buona  Parte — Ajaccio 
and  Napoleon's  Ancestors — The  Aristocrats  of  the  Pale — 
The  Provincialism  of  the  Bonapartes — Their  Love  of 
Learning — Their  Esprit  de  Foyer — The  Spirit  of  the  Clan 
— Napoleon's  Mania  of  Superiority — His  Jealousy  of 
Famous  Men — His  Opinion  about  CcBsar,  Hannibal, 
Alexander — Relations  with  his  Master  Generals — Le  Harnais 
Militaire — Napoleon's  Master  Passion 


CHAPTER  II 

The  Imperial  Student     .  .  .  .49 

Napoleon's  Academic  Training — The  Curriculum  at 
Brienne — The  Classical  and  Language  Course — On  Literary 
Style — The  Mathematical  Studies — Religious  Instruction  — 
At  the  icole  Militaire — The  Subaltern-Student  of  Auxonne 
— Importance  of  History — Formation  of  Literary  Tastes — 
What  Rousseau  taught  Napoleon — Machiavelli  a  Favourite 
— Was  Bonaparte  a  Mason? — Some  Literary  Attempts — 
His  "Heart's  Library" — Some  English  Books 

CHAPTER  HI 

The  Imperial  Critic         .  .  .         .       61 

Frenchmen  and  Coriieille — Value  of  Napoleon's  Criticism — 
His  Literary  Likes  and  Dislikes — His  Opinion  of  Corneille 
and  Moliere — A  Discussio>i  of  Tragedy — Napoleon  and 
Raynouard — Concerning  Voltaire — A  Reading  by  Talma — 
Napoleon  and  the  Public  Taste — Love  and  Tragedy — A 
Literary  Ghost — The  Emperor's  Criticism  of  the  Mneid,  Book 
II. — His  Opinion  of  the  Iliad — Dislike  of  Shakespeare  — 
A  Hypercritical  View 


10  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  IV 

PAGE 

The  Imperial  Theatre     .  .  .  .75 

Talma  and  Bonaparte — The  Actor  coaches  the  First  Consul 
— The  Emperor  coaches  the  Actor — Friendly  Relations  of  the 
Twain — Napoleon  on  Critics  and  his  Love  for  Cinna — 
Concerning  Mademoiselle  Mara  and  her  Sister — An  Un- 
expected Scene — Mademoiselle  Bourgoin  and  Chaptal — Ayi 
Imperial  Rebuke 

CHAPTER  V 

Mademoiselle  George      .  .  .  .87 

Standards  of  Beauty — Lessifig's  View — George  an  Ama- 
zonian Type — Her  Attraction  for  Bonaparte — Their  First 
Meeting  at  Saint-Cloud — Affected  Nervousness  of  the 
Actress — Napoleon  as  a  Lover — Espionage  of  Talleyrand — 
Bonaparte  criticises  the  Actress — His  Generosity  to  George 
— A  Visit  to  the  Titileries — Josephine's  Fit  of  Jealousy 
— Napoleon's  Coronation — George  visits  an  Emperor — 
Napoleon  and  his  Bonnes  Fortunes — Where  George  dis- 
appointed her  Lover — Her  Veneration  for  Napoleon — A 
Costly  Rendezvous 

CHAPTER  VI 
Napoleon  and  Weimar     ....     105 

The  Cult  of  Napoleon — Goethe  on  the  Corsican — The 
Congress  of  Erfurt — Honouring  the  Sage — Lannes,  Maret 
and  Goethe — Presentation  to  the  Emperor — Ecce  Homo  '■  — 
The  Emperor  and  Werther — Politics  and  Fate — Napoleon's 
Manoeuvre — Miiller  on  the  Interview — Talleyrand's  Version 
of  the  Meeting — Preparations  for  Erfurt — An  Imperial 
Opinion  upon  Athalie — Goethe  and  Dedication — Talleyrand 
on  Napoleon's  Learning  —  Johann  von  Miiller  —  The 
Emperor  on  Christianity — Tragedy,  the  School  of  Kings — 
Wieland  is  presented — Les  genres  tranches — History  and 
Romance — Wieland  at  the  Palace — Tacitus  and  the  Annals 
— Napoleon's  Opinion — Wieland's  Eloquence — The  Great 
Painter  of  Antiquity — Livy  and  Tacitus — The  World's 
Happiest  Age  ? 

CHAPTER  VII 

The  Imperial  Art-Patron  .  .  .     129 

A  Specious  Sentiment — Art,  Merit,  and  the  Napoleonic 
Cult — The  Corsican's  Native  Materialism — A  Political 
Monument — Artists  a  "  Waspish  Lot  " — Art  to  Order — 
Feeding  the  Fraternity — Economy  in  Public  Architecture — 


CONTENTS  11 

PAGE 

Chapter  VII. — contd. 

A  Napoleonic  Art — The  Emperor's  Dislike  of  Architects — 
Some  Prices  paid  to  Famous  Artists — The  Corsican  a  Con- 
noisseur without  Pretensions — Insistence  on  the  Napoleonic 
Legend — How  to  hurt  Englishmen — The  Imperial  Reclame 
— Napoleon's  Art  Collectiofi  at  La  Malmaison — A  List  of 
Pictures 

CHAPTER  VIII 
David,  the  Imperial  Painter      .  .  141 

David  in  1797 — His  Meeting  with  Bonaparte — A  Visit  to 
the  Atelier — A  Soldier's  Blunt  Criticism — "  These  Military 
Philistines  " — David's  Promotion — Bonaparte  crossing  the 
Alps — David  and  his  School — A  Lover  of  the  Limelight — 
David  and  the  Coronation — A  Painter's  Whole  Ambition — 
Girard  and  the  Coronation  Picture — A  Happy  Suggestion 
— Pauline  Bonaparte  and  Gerard — Napoleon's  Satisfaction 
— David  and  the  Legion — The  Douglas  Portrait  of  the 
Emperor — David  and  the  Peerage 

CHAPTER  IX 
Canova  and  Napoleon  .  .  .157 

Canova  a  Great  Philanthropic  Spirit — Bonaparte  and  the 
Sculptor — Canova' s  Independence — The  Condition  of  Rome 
— Modelling  the  First  Consul — Napoleon  as  a  Sculptor's 
Subject — An  Heroic  Statue  of  the  Corsican — Mars  and 
Venus — The  Ingenue  Pauline — A  Chatsworth  Treasure — 
Canova  and  the  French  Capital — A  Bust  af  Marie  Louise 
— The  Farnese  Hercules — The  Pope's  Art  Patronage — The 
Borghese  Marbles — The  Sculptor's  Style — Napoleon  and 
Rome — The  Corsican's  Cautiousness — Art  and  Religion 
— Protestants  and  Catholics — Arrogance  of  the  Priests — 
Napoleon  on  CcBsar — "  The  Great  Man  of  the  Great  People  " 
— The  Corsican  and  the  Pope — Canova' s  Advice  to  the 
Emperor — Oligarchic  Venice — A  Candid  Admission — The 
Day  of  Wagram — Canova  and  Marriage — Monsieur  de 
Bouclon's  Canonisation 

CHAPTER  X 

The  Imperial  Musician  .  .  .  .179 

Napoleon  on  Music — Italian  Musicians  versus  German — 
National  Value  of  Opera — Napoleon  no  Musician — His 
Plans  for  the  Musical  Art — The  Eroica  Symphony  of 
Beethoven — Salaries  of  Official  Singers — A  Siirprise  for 
Vatican  Celibates — La  Belle  Grassini — The  Southern 
Temperament — Grassini's  Disobedience — Proud  Monsieur 
Paer — Grassini,  Wellington  and  Napoleon — An  Intellectual 
Singer 


12  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XI 

PAGE 

Religion  of  Napoleon     .  .  .  .189 

Modern  Views  of  Religiosity — Newman  and  Manning — 
Alen  and  the  Atheistic  View — Napoleon  after  the  Egyptian 
Campaign — Real  Value  of  Religion — The  Corsican's 
Essential  Unbelief — "An  Instinct  of  Spiritualism  " — A 
Sound  German  View — The  Chevalier  de  Beauterne — A 
Napoleonic  Press-Agent — The  Napoleonic  Expression  — 
Man's  Simian  Disposition — "  Christ  is  no  Man  " — Beau- 
terne's  Puerilities — Cardinal  Fesch  on  his  Nephew — 
Religion  postulates  a  Calvary — Monsieur  de  Norvins — 
Napoleon's  Mind  too  positive  for  Belief — His  Taste  for 
Religions  Discussion — The  Murder  of  Enghien — Napoleon's 
Cynical  Explanation — His  Choice  of  National  Religious — 
His  Political  Horror  of  Atheists 

CHAPTER  XII 
The  Imperial  Educationist         .  .  .205 

Action,  the  Royal  Quality  in  Man — The  Necessity  of 
Religious  Training — Dislike  of  Precocity  in  Children — 
Geography  and  History  essential  in  Early  Years — Linguistic 
Talent  no  Test  of  Mentality — Are  the  Classics  valuable  ? 
"Bending  the  Mind  to  Labour" — Value  of  Geometrical 
Studies — The  Age  of  Puberty  and  its  Mystic  Revolutions — 
The  Imperial  Catechism — Monsieur  de  Portalis,  imperio- 
maniac — Napoleon  and  God — Some  Questions  and  Answers 
— Contempt  for  Ordinary  Intelligence — Cardinal  Caprara's 
Rdle — Napoleon  and  his  Opportunity — The  Super-Caligula 

CHAPTER  XIII 
Napoleon  and  Journalism  .  .  .217 

The  Press  after  Brumaire — Difference  between  French  and 
English  Journalism — Wholesale  Suppression  of  Sheets — 
Liberty  of  the  Press  ceases  —  Newspaper  Morality  — 
Napoleon's  Journalistic  Precis — Monsieur  Fi6vie,  Chief 
Censor — Le  Moniteur  becomes  Official  Organ — Napoleon's 
Private  Paper — Value  of  Official  Organs — Government's 
Duty  to  the  Nation — Liicus  a  non  Lucendo — A  Newspaper 
without  News — Monsieur  Suard,  Editor — Le  Journal  des 
Dibats — Napoleon  and  Fractious  Editors — Le  Mercure  de 
France — Monsieur  de  Chateaubriand — Napoleon's  own 
Press  Agency — Beugnot  and  the  Emperor — Les  Idiologues 
— La   Route   d'Antibes — The   Adaptable   Sub-Editor — The 


CONTENTS  13 

Chapter  XIII. — contd. 

PAGE 

Hundred  Days — Napoleon's  Opinion  of  the  Press — Caustic 
Remarks  on  Journalists  and  Writers — His  Earliest  Venture 
as  a  Newspaper-Owner  —  The  Courrier  de  I'Armie  — 
Napoleon's  Personal  Corps  of  Special  Correspondents 

CHAPTER  XIV 

Bonaparte  versus  De  Stael         .  .  .     233 

Bonaparte  attracts  de  Stael — Bonaparte' s  Natural  Antipathy 
for  Coriune — Augeteau  and  Madame — Chez  M.  de  Talley- 
rand— Constant  and  Covinne — Benjamin's  Little  In- 
advertence— De  Stael  and  her  Spokesman — Intrigues  against 
Bonaparte — High  Political  Ambitions — IJne  Femme  in- 
comprise — Her  Work  on  Literature — Constant  is  dismissed 
— De  Stael's  Comment — Bernadotte  and  Corinne — Delphine 
appears — Bonaparte's  Comments — A  Pen-Portrait  of 
Corinne — Madame  at  Weimar,  in  Vienna  and  Stockholm — 
Corinne' s  Regard  for  England — Her  Son  Augustus — Some 
Fatherly  Advice — Projected  Visit  to  America — De  I'Alle- 
magne — A  Machine  a  Mouvement — Napoleon  disgusted  with 
her  Views — Goethe  and  de  Stael's  Work  on  Germany — The 
Visit  to  Russia — "  The  Conscience  of  Europe  " — Stein  and 
de  Stael — Her  Essay  on  Suicide — Goes  to  London — Byron's 
Opinion  of  Corinne — Death  in  1S17 — Gourgaud  and 
Madame — Napoleon's  Impartial  Opinion  of  her  Qualities 

CHAPTER  XV 
BioGi — Chateaubriand — Stendhal  .  .     253 

An  Unstoried  Celebrity — Biogi  and  Bonaparte — Philosopher 
and  Artist — Biogi  a)id  the  Military  Art — The  Corsican's 
Affection  for  him — Poisons  and  Antidotes — The  Battle-field 
of  Rivoli — Berthier  and  Bonaparte — Biogi  dislikes  Army 
Men — Bonaparte  as  Connoisseur — Gros  and  tlie  Areola 
Picture — Biogi's  Description  of  the  Corsican — M.  de 
Chateaubriand — The  Vicomte  and  the  First  Consul — A 
Mutual  A  ntipathy — Le  Gdnie  du  Christianisme — Essentially 
anti-Catholic — Chateaubriand's  Egotism — The  Little  Man 
and  the  Big  Quarry — The  Vicomte  is  dismissed — His 
Colossal  Vanity — His  Obsession  as  to  Napoleon — Some 
Expressions  of  Opinion — "  Napoleon  and  Myself" — Beyle, 
alias  Stendhal — His  Literary  Pedigree — The  Individualistic 
Touch — His  Connection  with  Napoleon — Stendhal's  Idolatry 
— His  Impartiality — France  and  the  Empire — Napoleon's 
Dead-heads — Stendhal  and  the  ex-Empress  Eugenie — An 
Author's  Discretion — Stendhal,  Megalomaniac — Napoleon's 
Trust  in  him — Afi  Imperial  Present — The  "Soul"  of  the 
Imperial  Army — Stupid  Officialdom — Napoleon,  France's 


14  CONTENTS 

Chapter  XV. — contd. 

Greatest  Man — His  Best  Achievement — "  The  Great 
Emperor  " — A  Change  of  Temper — A  Literary  Man's 
Philosophy — Napoleon  diminishes — A  Final  Recantation — 
"  Napoleon  was  our  only  Religion  " 


CHAPTER  XVI 
Imperial  Official  Theatre  .  .  .     273 

One  of  Napoleon's  Chief  Ambitions — Instructions  to  Cham- 
pagny — Authors  and  their  Rights — Assurance  of  Remunera- 
tion— Where  Napoleon  failed — Imperial  Art  mediocre — 
Limitations  of  Patronage — Genius  discovers  itself — Always 
its  own  Patron — Imperial  Epoch  tmfavourable  to  Art — 
Some  Liberal  Awards  —  Tragedy,  not  Comedy  —  The 
Thidtre-Franfais — Decree  of  Moscow — Napoleon  a  Real 
Benefactor — Schools  of  Dramatic  Art — His  Liberality  to 
the  Histrions — The  Dresden  Bill — His  Practical  Patronage 
— His  Friends  among  the  Illuminati — Did  he  like  Artists? 
— Remarks  by  Rimusat — After  Marengo — A  Line  from 
Cinna — The  Murder  of  Enghien 

CHAPTER  XVII 
Conclusion  .....     288 

Kircheisen's  Bibliography  of  Napoleon — One  Book  wanting — 
The  Temperamental  Aspect  of  Bonaparte — The  '  Napoleon" 
Test  of  Nationality — A  Modern  Imitator — The  Imperishable 
Corsican 

Bibliography         .....     289 
Index         ......     298 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

THE   REAL  NAPOLEON.      By   Vigneux 

TALMA   AS   NERO 

MADEMOISELLE   GEORGE 

THE  CORONATION.     By  David 

THE  CHATSWORTH  NAPOLEON.       By  Canova 

PAULINE    BONAPARTE    AS    VENUS    VICTRIX. 
By  Canova 

MADAME   DE   STAEL,   1804.      By  Godefroy 

DAEDALUS  AND  ICARUS.      By  Canova 


' 

Front 

ispiece 

To  face 

page 

76 

5> 

100 

J> 

154 

M 

168 

X. 

218 

5> 

248 
278 

15 


CHAPTER  I 
THE    GENESIS    OF    NAPOLEON 


The  Rule  of  Heredity — Man  the  Supersimian — Role 
of  the  Spinal  Column — A  Cynical  Truism — Napoleon's 
Sple?idid  Equipment — Lord  Acton's  View — Social 
Origins  of  the  Bonapartes — Their  Middle-class  Status 
—  The  Nursery  of  Fame — Corsica  and  its  Natives — 
Napoleon  s  Regard  for  his  Island  Home — Bonaparte's 
Ligurian  Ancestry — King  Theodore  of  Corsica — His 
Relationship  to  the  Bonapartes — Paoli  and  Boriaparte 
pere — The  Bonapartes  as  Men  of  Law — A  Lawyer  s 
Importance  in  Ajaccio — Ancestral  Prel  elisions  of  Bona- 
parte pere — Phetiomenal  Types  and  Neiv  Blood — 
Factions  of  the  Mala  and  Buona  Parte — Ajaccio  and 
Napoleon's  Ancestors — The  Aristocrats  of  the  Pale — 
The  Provincialism  of  the  Bonapartes — Their  Love 
of  Learning — Their  Esprit  de  Foyer — The  Spirit  of 
the  Clan — Napoleon's  Mania  of  Superiority — His 
Jealousy  of  Famous  Men — His  Opinion  about  Ccesar, 
Hannibal,  Alexander — Relations  with  his  Master 
Genei-als — Le  Harnais  Militaire — Napoleon's  Master 
Passion 


REPRODUCTION  of  the  immediate  and 
normal  stock  is  the  rule  of  heredity, 
the  experts  tell  us  ;  whereas  reproduc- 
tion of  the  remote  and  phenomenal  is 
the  exception.  The  supersimian  called  Man 
inherits  intuitions,  instincts,  predispositions  and 
temperamental  traits  from  his  ancestors,  even 
as  he  reproduces  their  physical  attributes  and 
tendencies.  This  being  the  case,  we  deduce 
correctly  when  we  say  man's  destiny  is  not  so 
much  what  is  to  be,  as  what  has  been,  and 
those  eugenists  are  probably  right  who  declare 
the  drab  and  unpoetical  truth — namely,  that  in 
the  last  analysis  man's  spinal  cord  is  his  very 
self,  his  nature  and  potential — that  which  fits  or 
unfits  him  for  the  fight  in  life,  which  determines 
his  character,  his  courage  and  his  driving  force, 
which  makes  him  the  clever  or  the  inept  animal 
among  the  human  herd,  which  decides  for  his 
annals  as  they  shall  be — humble,  mediocre,  or  the 
opposite.  Fontenelle,  the  distinguished  nephew  of 
the  great  Corneille,  told  the  unhappy  truth,  we  fear, 
when  he  said  that  for  supreme  success  or  domination 
in  the  world  there  was  one  prime  requisite,  and 
he  named  it  when  he  wrote  the  phrase:  "a 
callous  heart  in  a  sound  body."  Put  this  axiom 
of  worldly  wisdom  beside  one  of  the  profoundest 
and  most  cogent  verdicts  we  have  yet  seen 
contributed  to  the  explanation  of  the  eternal 
Corsican — in  effect,  that  the  wonderful  mind  of 
Napoleon    was    lodged    in    a    wonderful    body,' 

^  Napoleon  :  The  Last  Phase. 

i8 


GENEALOGY  OF  NAPOLEON  19 

and  we  find  ourselves  on  the  way  to  divining  the  i 
personality  of  the  being  whom  Cardinal  Newman  \ 
once  described  as  a  Miracle  of  Nature, 

And  yet  Lord  Acton  was,  after  all,  right  :  the 
more  we  study  the  Corsican  in  the  light  of  histori- 
cal documents,  the  less  a  Colossus  does  he  appear, 
though  perhaps  he  grows  nearer,  being  found  to  be 
so  human  a  creature,  to  the  sympathetic  student's 
heart.  Not  only  as  a  man  and  a  statesman  does 
he  lose  stature,  as  we  investigate  the  method  by 
which  he  sought  at  all  costs  to  stamp  one  vast 
impression  of  himself  upon  the  page  of  History  ; 
he  even  dwindles  as  a  soldier,  and  the  day  has 
gone  for  good,  we  think,  when  men  could  solemnly 
accept  such  a  verdict  as  the  following,  rendered 
by  Lockhart  and  subscribed  to  in  the  main  by 
two  generations  of  the  Victorian  century  : 

"  Nations  yet  to  come  will  look  back  upon  his 
history,  as  to  some  grand  and  supernatural 
romance.  The  fiery  energy  of  his  youthful  career, 
and  the  magnificent  progress  of  his  irresistible 
ambition  have  invested  his  character  with  the 
mysterious  grandeur  of  some  heavenly  appear- 
ance ;  and  when  all  the  lesser  tumults  and  lesser 
men  of  our  age  shall  have  passed  away  into  the 
darkness  of  oblivion,  history  will  still  inscribe  one 
mighty  era  with  the  majestic  age  of  Napoleon." 

Given  the  theory  of  ancestral  environment,  the 
genealogy  of  Napoleon  becomes  of  first-class 
importance  if  we  wish  to  understand,  or  come 
near  to  an  understanding  of,  that  momentous 
personality  which  to  a  large  extent  has  set  the 


20        THE  GENESIS  OF  NAPOLEON 

fashion  in  spectacular  greatness  ever  since  its 
appearance  in  the  world  at  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  In  the  case  of  great  men, 
says  Stendhal,  biographers  are  apt  to  fall  into 
one  of  two  excesses  :  either  they  attribute  a 
fabulous  ancestry  to  their  heroes,  or  else  out  of 
sheer  envy  and  malice,  they  seek  to  show  that 
those  of  whom  they  ^vrite  were  of  far  lower  and 
meaner  origin  than  was  actually  the  case.  This 
has  been  so  with  Napoleon,  though  all  attempts 
either  to  exalt  or  to  abase  him  in  respect  of  his 
ancestry,  have  resulted  only  in  forcing  us  to 
recognise  the  truth  of  La  Bruyere's  assertion — 
namely,  that  there  are  no  families  in  the  world, 
whether  exalted  or  plebeian,  which,  could  we 
accurately  trace  their  pedigrees,  would  not  be 
found  to  touch  the  loftiest  origins,  at  one  particular 
point,  and  the  lowliest  at  some  other. 

The  Bonapartes  had  already  been  several  genera- 
tions in  Corsica  when  Napoleon  was  born,  and  his 
four  great-grandfathers,  Bonaparte,  Paravisino 
(Paravicini),  Ramolino  and  Pietra-Santa  were  all 
of  grandparents  born  in  the  highland  canton  of 
Lunegiana,  under  the  Ligurian  Apennines  and 
about  forty  miles  direct  east  from  Genoa.  There 
is  little  doubt,  we  think,  for  all  the  attempts  to 
confer  an  exalted  social  ancestry  upon  Napoleon, 
that  his  forbears  for  six  generations  before  his 
birth  had  occupied  in  Corsica  a  local  position 
corresponding,  we  may  suppose,  to  the  minor 
lairds  of  Scotland,  and  there  is  no  question  that 
the    subsequent    ennobling    of   certain    Corsican 


TRIBE  OF  BUONAPARTE  21 

families  about  1770 — including  the  Bonapartes  — 
by  a  royal  decree  of  Louis  XVI.,  was  due  solely 
to  the  policy  of  bringing  the  newly  annexed 
islanders  into  social  and  political  alignment  with 
the  system  in  France,  even  as  Napoleon  was  to 
ennoble  certain  of  his  "  gentle  peasants "  of 
Holland  in  1810.  That  in  the  fifteenth  and 
sixteenth  centuries,  the  tribe  of  Buonaparte  had 
occupied  high  political  position  in  Italy,  is  much 
less  certain  than  that  their  name  had  been  inscribed 
on  several  civic  golden  books,  like  that  of  Treviso, 
simply  because  members  of  the  race  had  filled 
more  or  less  important  magistracies  and  alderman- 
ships in  their  home  towns ;  and  on  the  whole  we 
are  of  opinion  not  only  that  so  titanic  an  energy, 
physical  and  mental,  as  that  of  Napoleon  could 
never  have  sprung  from  a  very  ancient  line  of 
leisurely  or  even  refined  aristocrats,  but  that 
this  very  energy,  whether  in  its  personal,  its 
political  or  in  its  social  symptoms,  bore  at  all 
times  the  impress  of  having  come  from  the  common 
source  of  nearly  all  names  which  achieve  a  universal 
fame — to  wit,  the  educated  or  upper  classes,  as 
apart  from  the  patriciate,  and  of  course  education 
here  means  very  much  more  than  mere  instruction, 
or  academic  learning. 

Corsica  is  far  from  being  without  its  ancient 
chronicle,  and  Seneca  is  said  to  have  declared  of 
its  inhabitants  that  their  first  law  was  the  law 
of  vengeance.  A  Corsican  writer  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  Petrus  Cyrnoeus,  already  told  the  world 
that  "  the  Corsicans  are  a  factious  race  and  live 


22        THE  GENESIS  OF  NAPOLEON 

only  for  glory.  Vengeance  is  the  mainspring  of 
their  code  of  honour,  and  in  order  to  avenge  an 
insult  or  an  injury,  they  will  move  heaven,  earth 
and  hell  to  obtain  full  satisfaction.  Whether  he 
be  dead  or  alive,  beware  of  the  Corsican  who  has 
not  avenged  himself  on  an  aggressor."  The  stories 
of  Corsican  vendette^  we  are  all  acquainted  with, 
and  even  Napoleon  was  the  object  of  one  of  these 
throughout  his  career,  his  enemy,  Pozzo  di  Borgo, 
a  distant  relative  by  marriage,  never  having 
forgiven  him  the  fact  that  when  both  were 
candidates  for  a  colonelcy  of  Corsican  national 
guards,  the  preference  had  been  given  to  the  future 
emperor.  We  are  inclined  to  think,  however, 
that  too  much  importance  has  been  attached  to 
Pozzo' s  diplomatic  activities  during  the  Empire, 
more  particularly  when  it  is  asserted  that  ideas 
of  vengeance  were  really  the  inspiration  of  his 
enmity  for  Napoleon,  as  well  as  of  the  many 
intrigues  by  which  he  sought  to  destroy  the 
imperial  fabric.  The  method  of  attaining  to  fame 
by  attacking  one  who  has  already  attained  to  fame 
has,  it  is  well  known,  been  a  favourite  one  among 
doomed  mediocrities  of  all  ages,  and  the  Emperor's 
relentless  compatriot  does  not  appear  ever  at  any 
time  to  have  proved  insensible  of  his  opportunity. 
Napoleon  has  been  accused  of  having  had  no 
love  for  Corsica,  just  as  he  has  been  accused  of 
looking  upon  France  "  as  a  throne  rather  than  a 
nation,"  to  quote  an  illustrious  Russian.  Here, 
in  point,  is  what  the  Emperor  himself,  when  at 
St  Helena,  had  to  say  of  his  native  island  : 


A  RACIAL  PUZZLE  23 

"  The  Corsicans  have  always  had  something 
in  them  of  a  race  apart,  and  this  is  due  to  their 
insular  position,  which  preserves  them  from  con- 
tact with  the  mixed  peoples  of  the  mainland. 
Corsican  highlanders  possess  an  energy  of  char- 
acter and  a  firmness  of  soul  which  are  entirely 
peculiar  to  them.  And  as  for  the  beauty  of  that 
little  island — nothing  could  exceed  it.  Even  the 
very  presence  of  its  soil  I  could  note  with  eyes 
closed,  and  I  have  never  known  its  like  anywhere. 
I  can  see  myself  there  in  my  earliest  years  and 
my  first  affections,  tricking  my  way  round  the 
mountain  precipices,  cUmbing  the  loftiest  peaks, 
careering  down  the  passes  and  playing  in  the 
silent  valleys,  ever  the  most  devoted  of  partisans 
in  my  family's  feuds,  and  taking  sides  with  all 
my  kith  and  kin  in  a  vendetta  which  went  back 
seven  generations.  ...  I  even  thought  of  taking 
refuge  there  in  1815,  and  am  certain  that  I  should 
have  won  over  all  the  inhabitants,  who  would 
have  accepted  me  as  their  King  and  who  would 
have  been  to  me  as  one  great  family.  Do  you 
think  that  even  fifty  thousand  of  the  Allied  troops 
would  have  ventured  to  attack  me  there  ?  And 
even  if  they  had,  to  what  end — to  gain  what  ?  " 

Are  the  Corsicans  to  be  numbered  among  the 
racial  puzzles  of  the  w^orld  ?  They  are  said  to 
have  sprung  originally  from  some  remote  Iberian 
stock,  and  characteristics  which  have  been  found 
among  the  people  of  Albania,  of  the  Basque 
countries  and  the  Berbers  of  Northern  Africa, 
are  admitted  by  anthropologists  to  be  common 


24         THE  GENESIS  OF  NAPOLEON 

to  the  inhabitants  of  the  island.  In  the  course 
of  the  early  ages,  the  Phoenicians — as  in  Ireland, 
be  it  noted,  which  is  famous  for  its  reproduction 
of  the  Napoleonic  type — the  Carthaginians,  the 
Ligurians  and  the  Iberians  founded  smkll  and 
nomadic  colonies,  until  the  Greeks  finally  estab- 
lished a  civilisation  there  some  six  centuries 
before  Christ.  Subsequently,  on  account  of  their 
piratical  practices,  they  were  driven  thence  by 
the  people  of  Etruria,  who  succeeded  in  finally 
and  permanently  impressing  their  cachet  on  the 
islanders.  The  Bonapartes,  as  we  have  seen, 
were  of  Ligurian  origin,  and  in  the  earliest  days 
of  Roman  civilisation,  the  people  of  Liguria  were 
held  to  be  of  Germano-Gallic  rather  than  Italic 
stock,  which  was  short  and  broad-headed,  while 
the  Ligurians  were  tall  and  long-headed — the 
family  type  of  the  Napoleons,  to  which  their 
great  chief  proved,  however,  an  exception.  All 
writers,  ancient  as  well  as  modern,  agreed  in 
attributing  one  salient  characteristic  to  the 
Corsicans — namely,  that  they  appeared  to  con- 
sider themselves  superior  to  other  races,  and 
would  voluntarily  engage  in  no  servile  or  menial 
work  ;  the  native  was  sober,  obliging,  hospitable, 
grateful,  a  firm  friend,  a  terrible  enemy,  logical, 
practical,  inclined  to  be  sultanic  in  his  treatment 
of  women,  intriguing  and  always  very  curious  to 
know  what  the  other  man  was  doing,  expansive 
with  his  friends,  silent  and  reserved  ^\4th  strangers. 
A  German  writer,  Razel,  declares  that  until  the 
eighteenth   century  no   Corsican  generation   had 


THE  PROUD  ISLANDERS  25 

existed  which  had  not  known  either  invasion  or 
civil  wai' — an  important  point. 

Diodorus  Siculus  said  of  these  islanders  that 
the  hardest  Roman  slave-masters  dared  not 
subject  them  to  the  ordinary  tasks  of  other 
helots  on  account  of  their  rebellious  and  intract- 
able character.  "They  will  not  live  in  slavery," 
says  Strabo,  "  and  if  they  do  not  kill  themselves 
before  submitting  to  the  degradation  of  low 
menial  work,  they  so  conduct  themselves  as  to 
make  their  masters  regret  the  money  expended 
on  their  purchase."  After  the  fall  of  the  Roman 
Empire,  Corsica,  in  the  seventh  century,  they 
teach,  came  under  the  domination  of  Constan- 
tinople and  then  received  that  strong  religious 
impress  which  informs  the  general  character  of 
the  native  with  a  mysticism  that  is  hardly  to 
be  differentiated  from  superstition.  Charlemagne 
handed  them  over  to  the  Popes  in  the  tenth 
century,  and  the  Saracens  carried  fire  and  sword 
through  the  island  in  the  eleventh,  after  which  a 
feudalism  of  a  Germanic  type  settled  for  some 
centuries  upon  the  country,  administered  and 
inspired  in  the  main  by  high  Ligurian  officials. 
Nevertheless  the  spirit  of  the  clan  was  ever  so 
powerful  a  characteristic  of  Corsican  society,  that 
the  feudal  lords  practised  a  larger  liberalism  in 
their  exactions  from,  and  their  dealings  with, 
the  proud  islanders  than  was  customary,  under 
the  system,  with  less  independent  races.  Every 
Corsican  became  a  rebel  at  the  first  sign  of 
oppression  on  the  part  of  his  lord,  and  so  there 


26         THE  GENESIS  OF  NAPOLEON 

grew  up  a  society  of  men  who  would  acknowledge 
no  masters — another  important  point. 

It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  to  find  them  in 
1730  declaring  an  entire  independence  of  Genoa 
and,  at  the  outbreak  of  hostilities,  inaugurating 
a  theological  council  which,  by  assertixig  that 
justice  was  on  the  side  of  the  revolting  islanders, 
gave  to  the  who'e  uprising  the  character  of  a 
holy  war.  The  Genoese  called  in  the  help  of 
several  corps  of  German  troops  of  the  Emperor 
Charles  VI.,  under  the  command  of  the  Prince 
of  Wurtembcrg,  who  was  only  too  pleased  to  sign 
a  treaty  of  peace  with  the  invincible  islanders  in 
1732.  In  1736  a  German  adventurer  of  noble 
birth.  Baron  Theodore  von  Neuhof,  arrived  in 
the  port  of  Aleria,  and  having  assured  the  popular 
leaders  of  his  possession  of  great  influence  at  the 
courts  of  Europe,  offered  to  undertake  the  final 
liberation  of  the  island  from  Genoese  tyranny. 
Eventually,  after  the  distribution  of  considerable 
largess,  Theodore  was  named  King  of  Corsica, 
and  besides  founding  a  nobility,  also  inaugur- 
ated many  civic  reforms,  invited  foreign  in- 
dustrialists to  take  up  residence  in  Corsica, 
disciplined  the  army  and  ultimately  attacked 
Genoa.  Success  did  not  attend  on  his  extra- 
insular  military  expeditions,  however,  and  he 
soon  found  himself  obliged  to  have  recourse  to 
his  great  diplomatic  and  political  friends  on  the 
mainland.  He  left  the  island,  appointing  a 
regency  of  four  persons,  one  of  whom  was 
Jacopo  Ornano,  a  blood  relation  of  the  Bonapartes. 


CHARLES  DE  BONAPARTE  27 

Theodore  came  back  in  1738,  but  only  for  a 
short  while,  and  left  again  for  the  Continent, 
entrusting  all  interests  to  his  great-nephew  Baron 
Drost,  who  afterwards,  be  it  noted,  married  a 
lady  of  the  Bonaparte  tribe.  The  King  again 
returned  to  the  island  in  1743,  provided  with 
plenty  of  arms  and  munitions  ;  he  had  grown 
despotic,  however,  during  his  exile,  and  being 
badly  received  by  the  popular  leaders,  went  back 
to  London,  where  he  was  arrested  for  debt  and 
spent  several  years  in  the  Fleet,  until  released  by 
the  good  offices  of  Horace  Walpole.  All  of  which 
we  mention  only  to  show  that  the  adventure  of 
bold  and  successful  usurpation  was  certainly 
not  lacking  among  the  inspirations  which  sub- 
sequently moved  the  young  soldier  of  Italy  to 
exalted  self- promotion. 

In  the  stirring  days  when  Paoli  took  command 
of  affairs  in  Corsica,  he  employed  the  services 
of  Charles  Bonaparte,  father  of  Napoleon,  as 
personal  secretary.  This  gentleman  had  married, 
at  the  age  of  eighteen,  a  beautiful  girl  of  fifteen, 
Letitia  Ramolino.  It  is  worth  noting  that  apart 
from  the  fact  that  this  alliance  was  a  genuine 
love  match — always  an  important  condition  for 
the  children  issuing — it  contained  many  other 
elements  of  a  Romeo-and-Juliet  type,  since  the 
Ramolini  were  really  of  the  Genoese  faction,  while 
the  Bonapartes  were  of  the  insurgent  side — 
Guelphs  and  Ghibellines,  again,  on  a  minor  scale, 
or  Capulets  and  Montagues  of  Verona.  Like  the 
honourable    wife    and    mother   she    ever   proved 


28    THE  pENESIS  OF  NAPOLEON 

herself,  Letitia  gave  up  her  life  with  singular 
devotion  to  the  interests  of  her  husband's 
people,  and  ruled  the  family  home  at  Ajaccio 
with  the  impartial  severity  and  justice  of  a  Roman 
matron.  The  old  home  of  the  Bonapartes  no 
longer  exists,  it  may  be  said,  for  all  the  venal 
assurances  of  the  local  ciceroni.  The  actual 
house,  near  the  site  of  the  present  one,  was  much 
smaller,  and  the  Bonaparte  family  rented  only 
half  of  it  at  that— some  indication,  we  may 
presume,  that  their  means  were  of  a  limited 
extent.^  In  1771  Charles  Bonaparte,  who  was 
a  Doctor  of  Law,  had  been  appointed  a  kind 
of  executive  judge  [giudice  assesore)  to  the  high 
court  of  Ajaccio,  a  town  which  boasted  at  that 
time  a  population  of  3000  inhabitants.  The 
name  Napoleon  was  common  enough  in  Corsica 
in  several  families  with  which  the  Bonapartes 
were  connected,  and  w^as  spelled  impartially 
Napoleone,  Nabulione,  Lapulione,  Napollone,  and 
was  probably  derived  from  the  old  Genoese 
patronymic  Nebulone. 

The  Bonapartes  had  relatives  in  nearly  all 
classes  of  the  local  society,  but  the  majority  of 
the  allied  families  were  small  landowners  who  also 
engaged  in  the  wine  and  corn  trades.  Charles 
Bonaparte,  as  a  member  of  the  high  court — with 
£40  a  year  as  a  stipend  ! — was  admittedly  the 

^  It  has  been  estimated  that  the  Bonapartes  lived  for  several  years 
on  less  than  ^loo  a  year.  Those  who  are  at  all  acquainted  with  the 
tndnages  of  provincial  Italy  are  well  aware  that  such  a  sum  is  often 
made  to  go  to  very  respectable  lengths — for  middle-class  Italians. 


AN  ISLAND  COmiUNITY  29 

head  of  the  family  aUiance,  more  particularly 
when  he  had  been  chosen  member  of  the  com- 
mission of  twelve  representative  Corsican  nobles. 
There  is  no  doubt  whatever,  we  think,  that  though 
Bonaparte  yere  was  disposed  to  be  something 
of  a  spendthrift  and  a  high  liver,  he  was  a  man 
of  considerable  refinement,  great  literary  tastes, 
ever  looking  to  the  advancement  of  his  family. 
To  this  end,  indeed,  he  engaged  in  several  schemes 
which  caused  his  integrity  to  be  called  in  question 
more  than  once,  and  like  the  good  time-server  he 
was,  saw  no  harm  in  making  the  public  treasury  pay 
the  limit  for  his  services.  So  we  find  him  writing 
to  M.  de  Calonne,  in  1784,  asking  for  assistance : 

"  I  am  the  father  of  seven  children,  Monseigneur, 
the  eighth  already  on  its  way,  and  being  almost 
without  fortune  for  the  reasons  herein  mentioned, 
have  the  honour  to  solicit  your  protection  and 
your  justice  in  favour  of  my  poor  family.  .  .  ." 

In  no  country  in  the  world  is  the  principle  of 
equality  and  fraternity  carried  into  practice  to  the 
same  extent  as  in  Corsica,  says  Prosper  de  Merimee 
in  his  work  En  Corse,  and  if  real  democracy  has 
a  home  anywhere,  it  is  certainly  in  this  island 
where  the  employers  and  employed  live  on  terms 
of  tribal  famiharity,  the  result  being  that  "rich 
and  poor,"  to  quote  the  Frenchman,  "  hold  the 
same  ideas,  since  they  are  always  exchanging 
them."  The  wealthiest  man  in  Ajaccio  in  those 
days  was,  it  is  recorded,  worth  about  £8000 — a 
certain  Signor  Baciocchi,  of  whose  family  the 
world  has  also  heard. 


30         THE  GENESIS  OF  NAPOLEON 

It  is  fairly  well  established  now  that  the 
Bonapartes  of  Ajaccio  had  but  few  documents 
going  to  prove  that  their  line  had  once  been 
•"Nk^  either  a  very  ancient  or  a  very  splendid  one.  The 
alliances  which  the  family  had  made  since  their 
J  arrival  on  the  island  were  in  all  probability  what 
the  French  term  "  tres  honorables,"  meaning 
very  respectable,  but  by  no  means  very  exalted. 
Charles  Bonaparte  would  appear  to  have  been 
highly  proud  of  his  connection  with  the  minor 
squires  Bozzi  and  Ornano,  through  which  con- 
nections the  oldest  Corsican  blood  was  trans- 
mitted to  the  Napoleons.  By  Letizia's  side,  they 
claimed  descent  from  the  mighty  Colonna  gens 
of  the  twelfth  century,  and  in  the  days  of  his 
own  greatness  Napoleon  emphasised  this  claim 
on  behalf  of  his  then  exalted  tribe.  With  regard 
to  the  many  expedients  to  which  Bonaparte 
pere  resorted  in  order  to  establish  beyond  question 
the  nobility  of  his  blood,  it  has  to  be  remembered 
in  his  lasting  favour  that  by  proving  a  patrician 
ancestry,  he  not  only  guarded  against  the  possi- 
bility of  seeing  his  patent  revoked — an  unconscion- 
able dishonour  to  a  Corsican — but  also  assured  to 
his  sons  and  daughters  the  best  possible  education 
at  governmental  expense,  as  so-called  King's 
scholars.  If,  as  we  are  assured  on  high  authority, 
the  Corsicans  were  genuine  democrats  to  a  man, 
we  may  be  certain  that  Charles  Bonaparte  was 
moved  to  make  his  ancestral  pretensions  rather 
that  his  children  might  benefit,  than  for  any 
advantage  he  was  likely  to  derive  himself  from 


"DIE  WUNDERBARE  SAFT  "  31 

doing  so.  We  are  not  aware,  at  all  events,  that  \ 
anyone  has  ever  accused  a  single  member  of  the 
Imperial  family  of  having  shown  traits  of  that 
social  meanness  which  goes  by  the  name  of 
snobbery.  The  patent  of  nobility  granted  to 
the  House  of  Bonaparte  by  the  Government  of 
Louis  XVI.  was  made  out,  it  may  be  said,  not  so 
very  long  ago,  as  family  pedigrees  count — namely, 
in  1771 — a  year  which,  Scotsmen  will  hardly  require 
to  be  told,  saw  the  birth  of  the  author  of  Waverley. 
We  express  a  personal  view,  of  course,  when 
we  venture  the  opinion  that  it  is  only  the  really 
new  families  that  ever  produce  phenomenal  types.^ 
And  by  the  term  new  we  mean  those  families 
which  have  up  til]  their  production  of  a  rare 
entity — nigroque  simillima  cycno — remained  in 
quiet  obscurity,  unknown,  not  unhonoured,  but  un- 
sung. Very  old  and  well-known  races  of  the  world 
must  necessarily  have  gathered  in  the  process  of 
the  ages,  not  only  experience,  but  also  all  the 
philosophic  outlook — mostly  sceptical,  if  not  con- 
temptuous and  altogether  pessimist — with  which 
experience,  in  the  long  run,  cannot  fail  to  invest 
the  wisdom  of  reflective  men.  Such  a  philosophy 
of  scepticism  is  wholly  adverse,  however,  to  great 

^  We  admit  a  certain  vagueness  here.  Our  opinion  is  based  on 
the  assumption  that  blood  has  no  absolute  standard,  or  specific  type, 
but  that  the  varieties  of  its  quality  must  be  as  the  number  of  human 
kinds  and  characters.  Consequently  the  fusion,  or  combination, 
which  is  likely  to  produce  a  human  phenomenon — and  mankind  has 
produced  but  a  few,  historically  considered — would  normally  recur 
about  once  in  every  two  or  more  cycles,  as  History  has  shown,  we 
think.     Assuming  certain  figures,  it  is  a  simple  "probability"  sum. 


32        THE  GENESIS  OF  NAPOLEON 

performance  in  any  domain  of  human  activity, 
seeing  that  in  the  longest  space  of  time  allotted 
to  man,  hardly  more  than  the  bases  of  any 
enduring  fame  can  be  securely  laid.  Who  had 
heard — apart  from  Marius,  himself  not  a  Csesar 
— of  the  family  of  Julius  before  the  conqueror 
of  Gaul  had  brought  the  Julian  gens  into  promi- 
nence ?  What  sort  of  men  did  Cromwell  come 
from  ?  Who  was  Luther's  grandfather  ?  How 
long  were  Aristotle's  ancestors  resident  at  Stagira  ? 
What  were  the  Habsburgs  doing  before  Rudolph's 
day  ?  Or  who,  apart  from  a  few  musicians,  ever 
heard  of  the  Wellesleys  before  Wellington's  age  ? 
Or  of  the  Churchills  before  the  days  of  Marlborough? 
We  are  of  opinion,  consequently,  that  Nature 
provides  her  portents  from  especial  fusions  of 
new  blood  based  on  the  selective  principle.  This 
idea  leads,  of  course,  to  the  conclusion  that  no 
man  who  is  not  especially  called  to  great  perform- 
ance can  by  any  labour  of  his  own  achieve  a  high 
destiny,  or  renown.  Nor  do  we  think  that  oppor- 
tunity, or  environment,  or  luck,  or  any  other  of 
many  moot  conditions  can  explain  the  advent 
of  an  overwhelming  personality  in  the  world. 
Blood — the  wonderful  juice,  as  Goethe  called  it — 
seems  to  us  to  provide  the  key  to  the  mystery 
of  individual  phenomenalism  on  the  earth,  and  it 
appears  to  be  new  blood  at  that.  All  of  which 
leads  us  to  the  view  that  there  is  really  nothing 
subjective  in  creation,  and  that  man  is  merely 
an  instrument  through  which  nature  expresses 
itself  and  its  design. 


"  QUO  PATRE  ORTUS  ?  "  33 

The  story  of  the  Bonapartes  and  their  origin 
appears  to  be  a  case  in  point.     It  seems  to  be 
established  that  the  tribe  of  Buonaparte  cannot 
trace  a  clear  descent,  under  that  name,  before  the 
twelfth  century.     It  was  only  during  the  quarrels 
of  the  Guelphs  and  GhibelHnes  that  families  came 
to  be  known  either  as  members  of  the  good  side 
or  Imona  parte,  or  as  members  of  the  mala  parte 
or   bad  side,  entirely  according  to   the  political 
point  of  view   of  the  particular  partisan.     The 
Bonapartes,  as  a  result  of  these  quarrels,  issued 
with  the  patronymic  Buona  Parte  for  their  family 
name.      What  it  had  been  before  those  days  no 
one    apparently   knows    for   certain,    though,    of 
course,  conjecture  is  not  wanting  ;  some  genealo- 
gists tracing  their  origin  to  the  hereditary  Roman 
Caesars,   others  to  the    Byzantine   Caesars,   some 
giving    them    affiliation    with    the    Orsini    and 
Colonna  houses,  while  others  go  back  the  whole 
way  to  the  great  House  of  Macedon.     But  if  the 
original  family  had  been  of  high  standing  or  great 
antiquity,  there  would  have  been  no  possibility 
of  its  concealing  itself,  for  any  political  reason, 
under  the  generic  sobriquet  of  a  faction.     Hence 
we   are   inclined   to   the    view^   that   the   original 
Bonaparte  tribe  was  either  of  the  modest  middle 
classes,  or  else  of  the  nameless  or  foundling  type, 
and  consequently  belonged  to  the  new  tyjDC  which 
we  have  tried  to  suggest.     All  honest  attempts 
to  trace  their  ascent  before  the  twelfth  century 
to  the   Janfelds,  podesia  at  San  Stefano,   or  to 
Castruccio    Castracani,    the    dictator    of    Lucca, 


34         THE  GENESIS  OF  NAPOLEON 

have  been  unsuccessful.  Indeed  we  have  nothing 
positively  certain  of  the  Bonaparte  family  until 
they  had  become  fairly  settled  in  Corsica,  and 
the  first  public  document  which  bears  the  signa- 
ture of  a  Bonaparte  is  dated  14th  May  1485 — 
about  the  time  when  Richard  III.  was  making 
his  last  stand  for  the  crown  of  England. 

The  Bonapartes  moved  to  Ajaccio  about  the 
first  decade  of  the  sixteenth  century,  where  a 
certain  Francis  Bonaparte  was  generally  kno^vn 
to  his  fellow-citizens  as  the  Moor,  whether  from 
his  bronzed  complexion,  or  from  the  fact  that 
he  had  served  under  Ludovico  Moro,  we  know 
not.  He  had  a  son  Gabriel  who  served  in  the 
Genoese  mercenaries  and  afterwards  became  a 
priest  and  subsequently  a  canon  of  the  diocese. 
An  illegitimate  half-brother  of  this  gentleman, 
Luca  by  name,  once  had  his  face  severely  slapped 
by  an  Ornano  in  the  streets  of  Ajaccio.  He 
waited  some  years  for  his  vendetta  and  then 
murdered  the  assailant  on  the  steps  of  his  home, 
affixing  the  offending  hand,  pierced  by  a  dagger,  to 
a  panel  of  the  hall-door.  Blood  of  this  particular 
cuvee  cannot  but  have  contributed  to  the  for- 
midable personality  of  the  great  descendant. 
Even  up  to  1550  the  Bonapartes  considered  them- 
selves, as  immigrants  from  Liguria,  to  be  of  much 
superior  stock  to  the  islanders,  and  one  Jerome 
Bonaparte,  a  son  of  the  aforesaid  Gabriel,  the 
priest — whom  we  may  charitably  suppose  to 
have  become  a  widower  before  he  took  Orders — 
appears  about  1579  as  a  strenuous  supporter  of 


MEDIEVAL  PETTIFOGGERS  35 

a  kind  of  social  and  political  Pale  which  was 
established  to  the  exclusion  of  the  islanders  and 
in  favour  of  the  immigrants  from  the  mainland. 
One  Pozzo  di  Borgo  took  up  the  cause  of  the 
islanders,  and  thus  prepared  the  way  for  a  political 
vendetta  which  was  to  declare  itself  on  a  higher 
level,  more  than  two  centuries  later,  between 
descendant  members  af  the  same  two  clans. 

This  Jerome  Bonaparte,  a  lawyer  by  the  way, 
married  the  daughter  of  a  prosperous  landed 
proprietor,  whose  inheritance  he  added  to  by 
lucky  speculations  as  well  as  by  successful  claims 
to  property  formerly  in  the  possession  of  his  bride's 
family.  It  is  about  the  time  of  this  worthy  that 
we  find  the  Bonaparte  tribe  engaged  in  the  wine 
and  corn  trades,  among  them  Augustus  Bona- 
parte, brother  of  Jerome,  who  w^as  also  an  elder 
of  the  community  of  Ajaccio,  and  once  dis- 
tinguished himself  by  cornering  the  bread  supplies 
to  his  own  personal  profit.  For  the  most  part, 
however,  the  Bonarpartes  engaged  in  the  pro- 
fession of  attorney,  a  business  calculated,  we 
suppose,  to  give  its  practitioners  more  than 
ordinary  opportunities  for  studying  human 
nature.  The  Corsican  attorney  of  the  sixteenth, 
seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  was,  more- 
over, a  man  of  considerable  prominence  in  his 
community  and  corresponded,  in  a  large  measure, 
to  the  municipal  solicitor  of  our  own  time,  his 
role  being  socially,  politically  and  commercially  of 
first-class  importance  within  his  own  environment. 

The  profession  required  much  energy  in  those 


36         THE  GENESIS  OF  NAPOLEON 

days,  for  the  local  attorney  counted  for  some- 
thing in  little  things  as  well  as  big.  Even  the 
hiring  out  of  a  dun  cow  or  the  sale  of  a  little 
patch  of  land  required  a  contract.  However 
modest  their  means,  a  Corsican  couple  would 
scorn  to  enter  into  the  marriage  contract  without 
first  visiting  a  lawyer.  And  even  promises  of 
marriage  were  registered  at  his  office,  for  the 
failure  of  one  of  the  two  contracting  parties  to 
keep  the  plighted  word  would  inevitably  mean 
a  bloody  family  feud.  Then  the  office  of 
the  lam^er  was  the  especial  rendezvous  of  the 
parolanti,  or  interveners,  the  people  who  under- 
took to  settle  matters,  to  talk  the  other  fellow 
over,  or  to  compromise  a  quarrel,  or  even  to  bring 
together  the  parties  to  a  vendetta,  in  order  to 
debate  the  question  whether,  after  all,  there  was 
any  real  motive  for  vengeance  on  either  side — 
the  results  of  all  such  matters  being  duly  recorded 
by  the  essentially  impartial  pettifogger  who,  of 
course,  did  not  fail  to  collect  his  honorarium. 
He  also  it  was  who  engrossed  the  petitions  sent 
up  to  the  higher  powers  by  the  little  people,  and 
if  a  man  thought  his  forte  was  that  of  street- 
sweeping,  the  lawyer  drew  up  his  formal  request 
to  the  municipal  authorities  and  forwarded  it 
with  his  own  recommendation  to  the  proper 
quarter.  A  notorious  bandit  of  veteran  standing, 
anxious  to  make  his  soul,  as  the  saying  is,  and 
desirous  of  seeing  the  old  home  before  he  died, 
would  send  an  agent  to  the  lawyer  from  his 
mountain  lair,  offering  to  surrender  to  the  civic 


THE  SEVENTEENTH  CENTURY        37 

powers  a  portion  of  his  plunder,  provided  his 
previous  offences  were  condoned  and  the  ban  of 
legal  excommunication  removed.  On  another 
occasion  the  attorney  might  draw  up  a  deed  after 
the  following  fashion  : — 

"  The  noble  and  magnificent  Giuseppe  Carbone 
having  on  May  5  slain  a  bandit,  and  having 
therefore  acquired  the  right,  according  to  the 
civil  and  criminal  statutes  of  the  island  of  Corsica, 
to  designate  for  reprieve  any  other  bandit  now 
under  sentence  of  death,  desires  that  clemency 
shall  be  extended  to  Carolo  Perfetto  recently 
convicted  of  murder  and  perjury." 

The  noble  and  magnificent  Carbone,  having 
performed  this  act  of  justice,  returns  home  with 
a  clear  conscience,  not  unmindful  of  the  fact  that 
he  has  assured  himself  a  firm  ally  in  Carolo 
Perfetto,  should  he  ever  require  assistance  in  a 
little  matter  of  blood-letting,  or  even  in  a  case 
where  well-considered  perjury  would  be  likely  to 
help  his  fortunes  over  the  rough  spots. 

Francis  Bonaparte  succeeded  Jerome  as  the 
lawyer  of  Ajaccio,  but  does  not  appear  to  have 
added  to  the  family  wealth,  and  it  would  appear 
that  from  1625,  when  this  ancestor  sold  the 
property  of  La  Villetta,  near  Ajaccio,  the  terri- 
torial possessions  of  the  Bonapartes  began  to 
dwindle  very  rapidly.  In  1632,  indeed,  the 
record  shows  that  he  was  forced  to  pledge  a  small 
golden  relic,  with  his  arms  engraven  on  the  same, 
for  about  twelve  shillings.  Francis  was,  in  due 
course,  succeeded  by  his  son,  Sebastian  Bonaparte, 


38         THE  GENESIS  OF  NAPOLEON 

whose  eldest,  Charles,  became  the  father  of 
Joseph  Bonaparte.  This  worthy  married  a 
daughter  of  the  squirearchic  Corsican  family  of 
Bozzi  in  which  the  baptismal  name  Napoleon 
was  common  and  whose  ancestors  had  served 
under  the  French  King  Henri  II.  when  the  English 
lost  Calais  in  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
This  is  the  point  at  which  the  Italian  Bonaparte 
stock  receives  its  first  infiltration  of  pure  Corsican 
blood  :  by  the  small  but  ancient  territorial 
properties  which  enter  into  the  family  with  that 
alliance,  the  Napoleons  become  Corsicans  of 
Corsica,  and  the  old  prejudices  of  the  Genoese 
Pale  pass  for  ever.  A  son  of  this  marriage, 
Sebastian  Nicholas,  became  the  husband  of  Maria 
Tusoli,  a  daughter  of  one  of  the  fiery  factionaries 
of  the  island  and  also  a  Corsican  of  the  purest 
blood.  They  had  three  children,  Joseph,  Napoleon 
and  Lucien,  and  from  the  marriage  of  the  first 
of  these,  Joseph,  with  Maria  Paravisino.  sprang 
Charles  Bonaparte,  the  father  of  the  mighty 
Napoleon.  Letitia,  his  wife,  was  of  the  Ramolini 
tribe,  whose  ancestors  were  squires  of  Istria  and 
officers  in  the  armies  of  Venice. 

It  is  clear,  therefore,  from  all  which  precedes 
that  at  no  point  of  the  known  line  do  there 
appear  to  be  any  conditions  which  might  contri- 
bute to  a  transmission  of  artistic  leanings  in  the 
Bonaparte  family.  On  the  contrary,  everything 
seems  to  mark  the  men  out  for  professions  which 
are  the  extreme  opposite  of  anything  artistic  ; 
while  the  women,  wholly  unlettered  and  in  the 


GENS  BUONAPARTIANA  39 

main  somewhat  jmysannes  in  speech,  in  manner 
and  in  their  meticulous  housewifery,  seem  to  be 
chosen  for  their  "  points  "  and  as  hkely  in  all  cases 
to  "  throw  "  healthy  children.  All  their  men, 
indeed,  are  apt  and  clever  animals  and  all  their 
women  unfailing  breeders,  the  only  spiritual 
tendency  observable  in  any  of  the  stock  being 
the  insistence  with  which  each  father  decides  that 
the  sons  shall  have  the  best  possible  scholarly 
education,  without  which,  they  are  fully  well 
aware,  no  inferior  can  climb  to  higher  social  rank. 

"The  Bonapartes,"  says  de  Rocca,  in  effect, 
"were  not  the  richest  people  in  Ajaccio;  they 
were  not  even  the  best-born.  On  their  arrival 
there,  they  occupied  a  very  modest  position  in 
the  town,  but  had  derived  from  their  Genoese 
ancestors  that  taste  for  letters  and  learning  with- 
out which  no  man  can  change  his  condition  in 
life.  Beside  this  individual  ambition  we  find  a 
kind  of  racial  ambition,  a  patient  seeking  for  self- 
perfectioning  which  maintains  them  on  a  level 
above  their  contemporaries.  In  their  little  sphere 
they  distinguish  themselves  by  qualities  of  culture 
which  raise  them  even  when  their  means  are  dis- 
appearing. This  solicitude  for  the  family's  future 
displays  itself  in  the  anxiety  and  craftiness  with 
which  they  seek  out  patrons  and  protectors  for 
their  children ;  as,  for  example,  in  their  choice  of 
prosperous  and  well-placed  godfathers  and  god- 
mothers for  their  offspring. 

"  This  esprit  de  foyer,  this  tenaciousness  of  the 
Bonapartes  in  moving  all  influences  in  order  to 


40         THE  GENESIS  OF  NAPOLEON 

assure  to  their  children  a  better  place  in  life,  this 
tireless  object  from  generation  to  generation — all 
such  effort  is  seen  at  its  highest  in  Charles 
Bonaparte,  whose  son,  Napoleon,  is  marvellously 
served  by  fortunate  circumstances  in  his  begin- 
nings :  he  is  just  noble  enough  to  qualify  for  a 
king's  cadetship  and  a  free  education  which  will 
be  much  superior  to  anything  which  his  rivals, 
the  Republican  generals,  will  have  received. 
Thanks  to  the  democratic  community  from  which 
he  springs,  he  cannot,  when  the  Revolution 
begins  to  decimate  them,  be  accounted  one  of 
the  officers  of  the  ci-devant.  Had  he  come 
from  Touraine,  he  could  never  have  gone  through 
the  reign  of  terror  and  not  been  proscribed.  It 
is  the  Corsican  spirit  of  the  clan  which  makes 
Napoleon  give  a  throne  to  his  brothers  and 
sisters,  and  he  distributes  crowns  among  them 
just  as  the  Corsican  elders  distribute  their  civic 
patronage  among  their  own  kith  and  kin.  With- 
out seeking  to  decide  what  Napoleon  owed  in 
his  mental  formation  to  his  ancestors  of  Corsica 
and  Liguria,  we  may  say  that  the  foresight  of  his 
fathers  prepared  him  for  his  destiny,  while  his 
native  island  furnished  him  at  once  with  the 
elements  of  his  grandeur  and  his  destruction." 

The  true  Corsican's  mania  of  superiority 
obsessed  the  Emperor  to  the  end  of  his  days,  as 
his  judgments  of  all  great  men  clearly  show,  and 
we  have  covered  much  ground  in  our  quest  of  a 
single  criticism  of  any  great  historical  character, 
which  might  be  said  to  possess  an  impartial  ring. 


"  WHO  BUT  MUST  LAUGH "        41 

"  Napoleon,"  declared  Madame  de  Remusat, 
"  was  jealous  of  all  the  great  men  of  the  world. 
He  feared  all  signs  of  superiority  and  few  who 
were  near  him  ever  failed  to  hear  him  express  a 
predilection  for  mediocrities." 

When  at  St  Helena  his  secretary,  Baron 
Gourgaud,  once  mentioned  Louis  XI.  and  Henri 
IV.  as  being  possible  rivals  in  respect  of  per- 
sonal popularity  in  France.  The  fallen  Emperor 
answered,  as  the  Baron  tells  : 

"  Saint  Louis  was  an  ass ;  a  just  man,  if  you 
will,  but  he  never  achieved  anything  worthy  of 
note.  And  as  for  that  goat's-beard  Henri  IV. — 
he  was  an  old  fool.  Louis  XIV.  was  certainly  the 
greatest  King  of  his  race.  He  and  myself  alone 
will  count  in  our  history  ;  only  he  and  I  had  such 
great  armies,"  and  he  does  not  fail  to  point  out 
that  Napoleon  differed  from  Louis  in  one  important 
consideration — namely,  that  the  former  com- 
manded his  legions  in  person,  and  that  the  Roi- 
Soleil  was  never  anything  but  a  chef  de  parade. 

The  Emperor  does  not  deny  that  Alexander. 
Hannibal,  Caesar,  possessed  "  qualities."  Never- 
theless his  criticism  of  their  various  campaigns 
goes  to  indicate  that  their  wars  possessed  nothing 
of  the  splendour  and  eclat,  whether  in  conception 
or  results,  of  his  own.  Alexander,  he  admits, 
calculated  profoundly,  executed  boldly,  led  with 
judgment ;  but  "  we  cannot  point  in  the  case  of 
the  Macedonian  to  any  manoeuvre  which  can  be 
said  to  be  worthy  of  a  great  general."  Alexander 
appears  to  be  simply  a  brave  soldier — a  grenadier 


i 


42         THE  GENESIS  OF  NAPOLEON 

like  Leon  Aune,  this  guardsman  being  about  the 
equivalent  of  our  own  famous  Shaw  of  the  House- 
hold Cavalry,  who  fell  at  Waterloo.  Hannibal 
he  admits  to  have  been  the  boldest  and  most 
audacious  of  all  the  conquerors  of  Antiquity — so 
adventurous,  so  sure,  so  great  in  all  things,  as  he 
says  of  the  Carthaginian  who  had  crossed  both 
the  Pyrenees  and  the  Alps. 

"  Yet,  voyez-vous,  this  march  of  Hannibal  from 
Collioure  to  Turin  was  quite  a  simple  matter — a 
mere  holiday  tramp  ;  and  as  for  the  difficulties 
of  the  passage  of  the  Alps,  why,  there  were  really 
none,"  is  a  commentary  reported  by  Damas 
Hinard  in  his  Opinions  de  Napoleon,  vol.  i.,  p.  79. 
Contrary  to  accepted  historical  opinion,  which 
places  (we  think)  the  Carthaginian,  as  a  patriot 
and  a  strategist,  higher  than  all  other  conquerors, 
whether  modern  or  ancient.  Napoleon  declares 
him  inferior  to  Turenne  and  Conde,  a  comparison 
which  would  place  him  on  a  plane  about  equal  to 
that  of  Marlborough.  Turenne  would,  had  he 
suddenly  arrived  on  the  field  of  Wagram,  have 
at  once  understood  the  tactical  dispositions, 
Napoleon  explams.     But  not  so  Hannibal. 

In  regard  to  Caesar,  whom  the  world  has  long 
been  taught  to  look  upon  as  the  nearest  known 
approach  to  the  perfect  prince  among  men  : 
Napoleon  deals  with  the  Roman  Colossus  in  an 
especial  manner,  for  Caesar,  he  thinks,  is  the  only 
spirit  of  all  time  that  in  any  way  challenges  his 
own  glory.  Caesar,  too,  is  inferior  as  a  general 
to  both  Turenne  and  Conde  and,  par  consequent. 


"  —IF  SUCH  A  MAN  THERE  BE  ?  "       43 

much  less  than  the  vietor  of  AusterHtz.  And 
Gourgaud  shows  us  how  the  Emperor  even  envies 
the  great  JuUus  his  renown  as  an  historian  ;  for 
after  dictating  a  series  of  commentaries  to  his 
secretary,  he  turns  to  the  latter,  saying  : 

"  There  you  have  something  worth  more  than 
Caesar's.  He  gives  no  dates  ;  I  do."  And,  we 
are  assured  by  Hinard,  the  Emperor  disliked  to 
be  told  that  it  was  Caesar's  habit  to  take  his 
ordinary  rest  on  the  night  preceding  a  great 
battle. 

As  for  Gustavus  Adolphus,  the  only  respectable 
commander  produced  by  the  Thirty  Years'  War, 
in  our  opinion  : 

"  In  eighteen  months,"  pooh-poohs  Napoleon, 
"  this  wonder  gained  one  battle,  lost  another  and 
was  killed  in  a  third.  They  are,  indeed,  not  wrong 
who  say  ihat  history  is  a  romance.  Men  still 
talk  of  the  wondrous  exploits  of  this  Swede,  and 
of  ourselves  they  will  say— perhaps  nothing'! 
Yet  Gustavus  added  nothing  to  the  technical 
science  of  war  !  " 

And,  again,  Charles  XII.  was  a  man  who  showed 
no  results  for  his  career  ;  the  Marechal  de  Saxe 
— the  soldier  who  met  the  Bloody  Duke  at 
Fontenoy — was  brave  "  but  not  by  any  means 
an  eagle."  Even  Frederick  the  Great — to  whom 
Napoleon  surely  owed  his  ideas  about  horse 
artillery — fails  to  meet  with  the  approval  of  the 
Corsican,  who  declares  in  almost  the  same  words 
which  old  Wurmser  had  used  about  himself  in  the 
Italian  Campaign  of  1796  : 


44         THE  GENESIS  OF  NAPOLEON 

"  Frederick  breaks  all  the  rules  of  war.  What 
distinguishes  him  is  not  so  much  his  skill  in 
manoeuvres  as  his  audacity.  There  was  nothing 
very  fine  in  his  tactics  at  Rosbach,  and  cer- 
tainly he  is  not  in  the  same  class  with  Turenne. 
Frederick,  for  all  his  great  military  qualities,  did 
not  understand  the  proper  use  of  artillery." 

So,  then,  we  see  that  Alexander  is  only  brave 
and  that  Hannibal,  Caesar  and  Frederick  are  not 
on  the  same  level  as  Turenne,  Napoleon,  of  course, 
being,  by  construction,  above  them  all.  He  is 
not  more  generous  in  dealing  with  his  own  lieu- 
tenants, whose  glory  he  will  only  allow  to  reflect 
his  own,  as  Madame  de  Remusat  tells  us  in  her 
Memoir es,  adding,  "  and  if  they  distinguished 
themselves,  he  would  say  that  they  only  did  their 
duty."  When  Davout,  who  had  just  won  the 
battle  of  Auerstadt,  really  the  decisive  factor  in 
the  Jena  Campaign,  met  his  Emperor  at  Head- 
quarters, the  day  after,  Napoleon,  who  had  had 
sufficient  time  to  compare  and  appraise  the  re- 
spective merits  of  Auerstadt  and  Jena,  looked  at 
^  his  lieutenant  very  darkly,  saying  : 
^  "Vous  n'avez  pas  mal  fait — You  didn't  do 
so  badly." 

He  is  careful,  too,  to  move  his  generals  from 
one  force  to  another,  in  order  that  none  shall 
become  too  popular  with  any  particular  army. 
There  shall  be  no  "  X  of  the  Army  of  Y,"  as  there 
had  been  a  Bonaparte  of  the  Army  of  Italy— if 
Napoleon  can  help  it.  In  speaking  of  Hoche, 
whom,  with  Marceau,  French  experts  rate  on  a 


"  WHO  WOULD  NOT  WEEP "       45 

level  equal  to  all  that  Bonaparte  proved  himself 
to  be  in  Italy,  the  Emperor  declared  that,  had  it 
come  to  a  definite  rivalry  between  them,  Hoche 
would  have  been  crushed.  Moreau,  Napoleon 
admitted,  was  the  only  general  sprung  from  the 
Revolution  who  was  capable  of  causing  him  any 
anxiety.  Yet  he  gives  no  credit  to  Moreau  for 
the  victory  of  Hohenlinden,  which,  far  more  than 
Marengo — too  distant  from  the  campaign's  real 
political  objective,  Vienna — decided  the  sub- 
mission of  Austria  to  Bonaparte's  plans  in  1800. 
Napoleon  at  St  Helena  described  this  great  battle 
as  a  mere  "  rencontre  heureuse,"  which — of  course 
— disclosed  no  military  talent. 

Then  there  was  Massena — whom  Disraeli, 
through  the  mouth  of  Sidonia,  claimed  as  a  fellow- 
Hebrew  from  the  tribe  of  Manasseh  :  "  Massena," 
said  Napoleon,  "  possesses  military  talents  before 
which  we  must  bow."  This  general,  it  will  be 
remembered,  fought  a  three-day  battle  against 
the  Russians  under  Korsakoff,  at  Zurich,  in  1799, 
defeated  them  and  saved  France  from  invasion. 
Yet  when  Massena  in  1804  wished  to  take  the 
title  Due  de  Zurich,  in  memory  of  the  exploit  which 
had  won  him  the  admiration  of  all  France, 
Napoleon  declined  to  sanction  the  choice  on  the 
ground  that  the  suggested  title  was  too  German 
for  a  good  Frenchman  !  Massena  had  to  content 
himself  with  the  dukedom  of  Rivoli,  which  re- 
called a  first-class  Bonapartian  exploit.  Thie- 
bault,  an  admirer  of  the  Emperor,  tells  us  that 
the  Corsican  never  quite  forgave  Massena,  who 


46         THE  GENESIS  OF  NAPOLEON 

among  soldiers  and  the  people,  held  a  reputation 
hardly  inferior  to  that  of  Napoleon  himself,  and 
in  order  to  destroy  the  Marshal's  prestige  with  the 
public,  sent  him  to  conquer  Portugal  with  forces 
entirely  inadequate  for  the  objecb  in  view. 
Furthermore,  in  order  to  make  any  likelihood  of 
his  great  lieutenant's  success  all  the  more  remote, 
two  hot-heads  like  Ney  and  Junot,  men  whom 
only  Napoleon  himself  could  command,  were 
given  him  as  coadjutors.  Massena,  adds 
Thiebault,  was  too  astute  not  to  see  through  his 
master's  motives,  and  at  first  refused  to  undertake 
the  mission.  Thiebault's  conclusion  is  one  that  is 
of  interest  in  these  days  of  great  military  exploit : 

''  II  semhle  que  le  harnais  militaire  est  idIus 
lyropice  quaucun  autre  a  provoquer,  chez  quiconque 
le  porte,  cette  rage  de  gloire  et  cet  entrainernent  a 
speculer  sur  la  defaite  du  rival  qui  j^orte  ombrage.^^ 

To  which  we  may  add  another  opinion  in  point 
from  the  excellent  Monsieur  de  Remusat,  who 
writes  in  the  following  strain,  to  his  equally 
excellent  wife  : — 

"It  is  amusing  to  hear  these  military  men 
discuss  one  another  ;  how  they  run  each  other 
down,  showing,  or  seeking  to  show,  for  how  much 
good  luck  counts  in  successes  which  are  won  ; 
and  tearing  to  shreds  every  reputation  which 
outsiders  like  ourselves  would  have  thought  to  be 
established  on  the  most  solid  foundations." 

Taine  was  assuredly  right  when  he  declared 
that  all  independence — even  its  possibility — 
offended   Napoleon,  and  that  he  could   tolerate 


"  —IF  ATTICUS  WERE  HE  ?  "  47 

around  him  only  such  spirits  as  wilhngly  hugged 
the  chains  of  their  slavery.  Napoleon  himself 
admitted  his  obsession  more  than  once,  and  com- 
pared himself  at  times  to  an  artist,  or  to  a  lover  : 

"  I  love  power,"  he  told  Roederer,  "  but  I  love 
it  as  only  an  artist  loves  his  art." 

And  on  another  occasion  : 

"  I  have  only  one  passion  and  one  mistress — 
France.  I  wake  with  her,  I  sleep  with  her.  My 
only  mistress  is  power,  and  I  worked  too  hard  in 
winning  her,  to  allow  myself  easily  to  be  robbed 
of  her,  or  even  to  be  envied  for  possessing  her." 

Or  again  : 

"  Ambition  is  so  much  a  part  of  my  tempera- 
ment, of  my  constitution,  that  it  has  become  the 
very  blood  of  my  veins  and  the  very  air  which 
I  breathe." 


CHAPTER  II 
THE   IMPERIAL   STUDENT 

Napoleon's  Academic  Tramijig — The  Curriculum  at 
Brienne — The  Classical  atid  Language  Course — On 
Literary  Style — The  Mathematical  Studies — Religious 
Instructio?i — At  the  Ecole  Mililaire — The  Suhaltern- 
Sludent  of  Aiuvonnc — Impoiiance  of  History — Forma- 
tion of  Literary  Tastes — What  Rousseau  taught 
Napoleon — Machiavelli  a  Favourite —  Was  Bonaparte 
a  Mason  ? — Sojne  Literary  Attempts — His  "  Heart's 
Library" — So7ne  English  Books 


CERTAIN  French  writers,  among  them 
Monsieur  Gustave  Mouravit,  agree  in 
thinking  that  the  psychic  side  of 
Napoleon  is  best  divined  from  a  study 
of  his  private  hbraries.  Supposing  this  method 
to  be  a  fair  test  of  the  intellectual  or  spiritual 
formation  of  an  individual,  we  cannot  fail  to 
derive  much  profit  from  tracing  his  literary 
tastes  back  to  the  days  of  his  early  training 
at  Brienne,  where  the  young  Corsican  spent 
six  years.  French  provincial  colleges,  whether 
military  or  civil,  have  not,  even  in  respect  of  the 
various  curricula  followed,  changed  very  much 
within  the  past  hundred  years  or  so,  and  those 
who  have,  as  so  many  Britons  now  do,  passed 
a  few  years  in  a  congregational  school  on  the 
Continent,  will  have  no  difficulty  at  all  in  recon- 
structing for  themselves  the  Academy  of  Brienne, 
severe  and  semi-monastic,  where  the  youthful 
Bonaparte  began  his  first  steps  in  polite  learning. 
Then,  as  now,  the  so-called  literary  course  began 
with  the  seventh,  or  grammar  class,  after  which 
the  pupil  started  his  cours  d^humanites.  As  a 
King's  Cadet  and  an  officer-to-be,  young  Bona- 
parte naturally  chose  the  classical  side,  and  in 
due  course  ascended  through  "  Sixieme  Latine," 
Fifth,  Fourth,  Third,  Second,  to  First,  or 
"  Rhetoric."  Latin  was  an  essential — though 
Napoleon  in  after  life  admitted  to  Wieland  and 
Goethe  that  he  was  no  great  Latinist. 

Roman  authors  read  all  varied  according  to 
the  Forms,  the  lower  taking  very  simple  works 

50 


"  EN  SIXIEME  LATINE  "  51 

like  those  of  Eutropius,  or  easy  passages  from 
the  Selectse  or  Colloquia  of  Erasmus,  the  Fables 
of  PhsediT-is.  The  middle  forms  read  the  Lives  of 
Cornelius  Nepos — De  Viris  lUustribus,  we  presume, 
the  Eclogues,  Caesar's  Commentaries,  Sallust's 
Jugurtha  and  Catiline.  The  higher  classes 
read  the  Twenty-First  Book  of  Livy,  Cicero's 
Catiline  and  Pro  Milone,  the  Odes  and  the  Satires 
of  Horace,  the  First,  Second  and  Sixth  Books  of 
the  ^neid,  and  the  Fourth  of  the  Georgics. 

The  pupils  in  Rhetoric,  we  are  told,  were 
taught  that  there  were  three  kinds  of  Oratory — 
namely,  (1)  the  judicial ;  (2)  the  demonstrative 
and  (3)  the  deliberative.  Three  kinds  of  literary 
style — (1)  the  sublime  style — "  dont  Vecueil  est 
Venflure,  fatras  loompeux  de  paroles  steriles " ; 
(2)  the  moderate  style,  like  that  of  Telemaquey 
and  (3)  the  simple  style,  of  which  La  Bruyere 
was  the  chief  model,  and  of  which  the  literary 
professor  of  the  Minimes  acuminously  observed : 
"  ce  style  est  j^lus  difficile  a  attraper  qiCon  ne  se 
V imagined  Literature  was  taught  with  evidently 
more  care  for  the  training  of  the  pupil's  cultivable 
mind  than  is  the  case  in  British  Public  Schools, 
and  a  satisfactory  knowledge  was  required  from 
each  youth  concerning  the  main  characteristics 
and  methods  of  thought  and  expression  of  Homer, 
Virgil,  Lucian,  ^sop,  Phsedrus,  Theocritus, 
Milton,  Voltaire,  Tasso  and  Camoens.  Voltaire's 
Essay  on  Epic  Poetry,  passages  from  the  Death 
of  Caesar  and  the  Henriade  were  among  the 
compulsory   subjects,   though   Corneille,   Racine, 


52  THE  IMPERIAL  STUDENT 

Fenelon,  Bossuet,  Massillon,  Flechier  and  Boileau 
were  naturally  the  favourite  authors  in  this 
congregational  academy.  The  oracle  of  the 
Minimes  was  Boileau.  A  work  by  the  Abbe 
Vertot,  entitled  History  of  the  Knights  of  Malta, 
was  looked  upon  as  a  classic  and  was  learned  by 
heart ;  Greek  and  Roman  history,  lectures  on  the 
story  of  France  from  the  days  of  the  early  kings 
and  an  account  of  the  "prodigious  conquests  "  of 
the  British  in  India  made  up  the  History  course. 
Geography  was  studied  somewhat  perfunctorily, 
though  considerable  attention  was  devoted  to  the 
British  Isles.  There  was  no  mention  of  Physics 
or  Natural  History,  but  German  was  a  fairly 
general  subject  and  the  Mathematical  schools 
were  good  so  far  as  they  went,  which  was,  for 
the  highest  Form,  in  Algebra,  to  Logarithms  and 
the  Theorem  ;  in  Geometry,  to  advanced  studies 
of  the  Straight  Line  and  Circle  ;  in  Trigonometry, 
to  the  Solution  of  Triangles. 

Religious  instruction  was  also  given  in  the 
form  of  discourses  on  difficult  points  in  the 
Catechism  and,  of  course,  there  were  classes  in 
Bible  History,  which  the  students  for  the  most 
part  looked  upon  as  the  most  tedious  of  all 
lectures.  Napoleon  was  not  lacking  in  piety, 
Chuquet  tells  us,  when  he  first  arrived  at  Brienne  ; 
but  it  is  also  certain  that  the  general  tone  of  the 
school  towards  religious  matters  was  well  cal- 
culated to  kill  any  devotion  he  may  once  have 
entertained  for  the  Church,  and  he  left  there  a 
confirmed  unbeUever,  even  as  most  of  his  con- 


DEVOTIONAL  SPRINTERS  53 

temporaries,  who,  after  the  manner  of  the  esprits 
forts  so  fashionable  in  that  age,  affected,  more 
especially  in  the  upper  lecture-rooms,  to  ridicule 
all  matters  connected  with  spiritual  belief.  It 
will  interest  those  who  have  experience  of  this 
kind  of  foreign  school-life  to  learn  that  the  most 
popular  professors  among  the  priests  were  those 
who  went  through  the  daily  Mass  with  the  greatest 
dispatch.  Thus  a  certain  Pere  Chateau,  for 
example,  was  able  to  gallop  through  the  ceremony 
au  pas  de  charge,  taking  only  four  minutes  and  a 
half  to  celebrate  a  *'  dead  "  mass  ;  a  certain  Pere 
Berton,  an  ex-grenadier,  by  the  way,  was  a  good 
second  favourite,  with  a  record  of  from  nine  to  ten 
minutes  ;  while  a  very  old  stager,  Pere  Genin, 
could  even  beat  the  Missal  hi  less  than  fourteen 
minutes  by  the  clock. 

On  leaving  Brienne  and  proceeding  to  the 
Military  College  in  Paris,  young  Bonaparte's 
studies  concerned  themselves  almost  wholly  with 
technical  acquirements,  and  if  the  Corsican  de- 
voted much  time  to  other  reading,  we  are  not 
informed  of  the  nature  of  the  works  which  engaged 
his  interest.  It  was  not  until  1785,  when  he  was 
already  a  subaltern  in  the  artillery,  that  he  read 
Rousseau's  Co7ifessions  which,  he  afterwards 
admitted,  much  affected  his  world-philosophy  at 
the  time.  It  seems  a  startling  fact  in  these  days 
of  rapid  military  promotion,  but  it  is  true  that 
Bonaparte  remained  for  over  five  years  a  second 
lieutenant  before  he  received  his  first  step. 
During  these  years — which  were  divided  between 


54  THE  IMPERIAL  STUDENT 

his  regimental  service  and  Corsica — the  young 
subaltern  gave  himself  up  to  all  kinds  of  study 
which  was  likely  to  contribute  to  his  intellectual 
formation,  including  original  literary  w^ork. 

"  My  sense  of  time-economy  was  always  large," 
he  declared  subsequently  to  the  Prince-Primate 
at  Erfurt,  "  and  even  when  I  had  nothing  to  do, 
I  was  quick  to  realise  that  I  had  no  time  to  lose." 

When  on  garrison  duty  at  Auxonne,  he  read 
scores  of  historical  works,  including,  as  he  tells  us, 
Marigny's  History  of  the  Arabs,  several  works 
dealing  with  the  government  of  Venice,  Buffon's 
Natural  History,  Mably's  Observations  on  the  His- 
tory of  France,  a  work  on  Frederick  the  Great, 
Baron  Tott's  Souvenirs  of  Turkey,  Barrow's 
History  of  England,  ^lirabeau's  Lelires  de  Cachet, 
Plato's  Republic . 

The  literary  tastes  of  Napoleon  may  be  said 
to  have  formed  themselves  during  his  garrison 
years  from  1785  to  1791,  and  the  possession  of 
an  extraordinary  memory  helped  him  to  retain 
all  that  he  read.  It  was  about  this  time,  too, 
that  he  began  to  show  his  preferences  in  regard 
to  the  theatre.  He  was  no  lover  of  the  play  of 
the  comedy-of -manners  type,  and  even  of  Moliere's 
plays  he  could  say  that  they  were  mere  drawing- 
room  gossip — commerage  de  salon.  His  idea  of 
the  educative  in  the  drama  was  based  upon  the 
stern  realities  of  life,  on  destiny  and  on  all  those 
conditions  of  existence  which  reveal  men  unto 
themselves  and  force  them  to  fight  against  the 
adverse  fate  which  is  ever  ready  to  overwhelm 


INFLUENCE  OF  ROUSSEAU  55 

the  resigned  and  the  supine.  Like  all  true 
Italians,  he  was  a  lover  of  Tragedy,  and  it  is  a 
matter  of  record  that  himself,  Joseph,  Louis, 
Lucien  and  their  sister  Elisa  enacted  many  of  the 
masterpieces  of  Corneille  and  Racine  at  one  time 
or  another  in  private.  Voltaire,  Napoleon  always 
held,  was  deficient  in  a  proper  understanding  of 
men,  their  motives  and  their  passions,  and  failed 
— like  Tacitus — to  appreciate  the  real  nobleness 
which  invariably  inspires  the  ambitions  and 
enterprises  of  all  great  men.  Paul  et  Virginie 
attracted  his  interest  in  these  days,  as  naturally 
did  Montesquieu's  Esprit  des  Lois.  Men  who 
associated  with  him  at  that  time  tell  us  how  it 
was  his  habit  to  read  aloud  and  so  improve  his 
French  accent,  which  always  remained  bad — so 
much  so  indeed  that  sergeants,  in  reading  the 
military  orders  of  the  day,  used  to  mimic  his 
pronunciation  and  say  enfanterie  for  infanterie, 
and  emphasise  the  ton  nasillard  which  character- 
ised their  young  Corsican  officer. 

Rousseau,  the  author  of  the  Social  Contract,  of 
the  Confessions  and  of  Emile,  counted  for  much 
in  forming  his  philosophic  outlook  about  this 
period,  and  helped  him  to  attain  that  clear  insight 
into  men's  character  which  distinguished  the 
great  intellectual  rebel  himself.  In  the  days  of 
Auxonne  he  thirsted,  like  Rousseau,  after  Justice 
and  Liberty,  fully  agreed  with  Emile  that 
"  society  was  bad  and  much  corrupted  by  ex- 
cessive civilisation,"  and  sighed  for  the  purity 
of  character  which  he  found  among  the  heroes  of 


4 


J  56  THE  IMPERIAL  STUDENT 

c^  9  his  favourite  Ossian.  And  strong  with  the  idea 
V  '>^  that  the  Corsicans  were  the  modern  types  of  the 
ancient  GaeUc  warriors,  he  decided  to  write  a 
history  of  his  native  island.  In  1789  he  trans- 
lated Boswell's  Account  of  Corsica  and  con- 
cluded from  a  searching  study  of  Cromwell  that 
-J^  "  revolutions  provide  a  good  opportunity  for  men 
*<^  ^who  have  audacity  and  courage."  His  study  of 
Machiavelli  pleases  him,  and  from  that  philosopher 
he  takes  a  phrase  which  is  afterwards  to  help  him 
generously  on  his  life's  journey : 

"  It  is  better  to  be  brutal  with  Fortune  than 
to  approach  her  with  respect ;    for  Fortune  is  a 
woman,  and  he  that  seeks  to  win  her  must  use 
>  ^      violence  rather  than  diplomacy." 

y"^        All  and  everything  touching  on  the  campaigns 

"  -»       of  the  great  captains  of  the  world  helps  to  fill 

^       up  the  busy  days  of  mind-building,  and  he  comes 

^^       to  the  conclusion  as  a  result  of  his  researches  in 

'^      military  history  that  : 

^  "  In  the   last  analysis,  it  is  the   soldier  who 

governs  ;  one  can  only  master  a  horse  with  boot 
and  spur."  The  horse  meaning,  of  course,  the 
People. 

Chuquet  is  of  opinion  that  Bonaparte  became 
a  Mason  about  the  Valence  period,  and  draws  the 
conclusion  therefrom  that  at  any  rate  he  had 
ceased  to  be  a  Catholic  on  taking  up  his  com- 
mission ;  a  point  of  view  which  overlooks  the 
fact  that  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  and  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century — the  Age 
of  Reason — Freemasonry  counted  all  sorts  and 


WANTED— A  UTOPIA  57 

conditions  of  prominent  men  within  its  fold, 
many  of  whom  outwardly  professed  anti-Masonic 
religions  and  many  who  followed  none  at  all. 
There  is  little  doubt,  in  any  case,  that  he  was  as 
favourable  to  Freemasonry  as  he  was  at  heart 
antipathetic  to  Jewry,  and  in  all  probability 
haabeen  initiated  at  some  time  or  other  into  the 
lower  degrees.  About  1790,  Lucien  tells  us,  he 
wrote  an  essay  in  which,  as  Voltaire  in  his  own 
day  had  done,  he  sought  to  show  that  the  life  i 
and  teachings  of  Apollonius  of  Tyana  — a  mystical  ^ 
contemporary  of  Christ — exceeded  in  their  in- 
fluence on  the  then  existing  world  all  that  which 
had  been  exerted  by  the  Bethlehemite. 

It  was  in  1791  that  the  Academy  of  Lyons 
decided  to  award  a  prize,  equal  in  value  to  about 
£60  of  our  own  money,  for  the  best  essay  dealing 
with  the  essential  conditions  of  human  happiness. 
The  young  officer — then  in  his  twenty-third  year 
— became  a  candidate  for  this  award,  and  in  due 
course  sent  in  his  contribution,  the  sentiments  of 
which  indicated  his  revolt  against  the  animalism 
of  Rousseau,  who  maintained,  it  will  be  remem- 
bered, that  food,  a  female  and  rest  were  all- 
sufficient  for  a  man's  happiness.  Bonaparte 
advocated  the  necessity  of  reasoned  sentiment 
in  the  world  as  the  proper  inspiration  of  social 
happiness  and  progress — sentiment  being  the 
prmcipiu7n  of  society  and  reason  the  force  which 
held  it  together.  Self-isolation  was  opposed  to 
nature ;  sympathy  was  as  much  a  craving  of 
man's  soul,   as  food  for  his  body  ;    action  was 


58  THE  IMPERIAL  STUDENT 

always  superior  to  philosophy,  even  as  sane 
enthusiasm  is  always  above  philosophic  indiffer- 
ence, and  reasoned  self-expression  is,  en  somyne, 
the  end  of  each  man's  life — these  are,  in  effect, 
some  of  the  points  of  view  he  advances  as  requisite 
for  his  new  Utopia.  He  did  not  win  the  prize 
which  was  declared  to  be,  if  somewhat  discursive, 
at  least  full  of  sound  philosophy.  The  winner  was 
Denou,  eight  years  older  than  Bonaparte,  a  man 
who  subsequently  played  a  prominent  role  as  a 
politician  and  an  intellectual  on  a  lower  stage  than 
his  vast  contemporary. 

In  1793  Commandant  Bonaparte,  of  the  12th 
Battery  of  La  Fere,  published  at  his  own  expense 
his  Souper  de  Beaucaire,  a  discussion,  between  five 
typical  representatives  of  the  social  body,  which 
treated  of  the  existing  political  situation  in 
France,  and  with  especial  reference  to  the  city  of 
Marseilles,  which  then  aspired,  it  would  seem,  to 
play  in  Europe  the  role  which  had  once  belonged 
to  oligarchic  Venice.  That  such  a  condition  of 
affairs  could  exist,  indicated  clearly  the  inherent 
weakness  of  the  French  Government,  and  the 
military  representative  at  the  Beaucaire  supper- 
table  — Bonaparte,  of  course  — goes  on  to  show  that 
France  can  be  saved  only  by  a  vigorous  policy 
which  shall  prove  acceptable  to  the  whole  of  the 
nation,  provided  it  be  able  to  assert  itself  and 
re-establish  order  everywhere — a  policy  in  which 
the  sword  must  be  allowed  to  play  a  capital  role, 
given  the  conditions  of  the  day,  suggests  our 
pragmatical  officer,  as  we  might  presume.     This 


NAPOLEON'S  LIBRARY  59 

pamphlet  went  the  way  of  the  majority  of  ecrits 
de  circonstance ;  it  made  no  sensation  in  the 
world,  and  a  day  was  to  come  when  Napoleon 
could  use  bad  language  on  his  hypercritical  and 
caustic  brother  Lucien  reminding  him  of  certain 
of  the  popular  sentiments  he  then  advanced. 

"  Oubliez-lc,"  he  would  shout  at  the  mocking 
Lucien  ;  "  oubliez-le — forget  it !  "  ;  and  then  goes 
on  to  lecture  him  on  the  virtue  of  gratitude 
among  brothers. 

In  concluding  this  chapter,  we  think  it  well 
to  mention  that  the  fallen  Emperor's  library 
at  St  Helena  was  bequeathed  to  the  Duke  of 
Reichstadt.  It  contained  somewhat  fewer  than 
500  volumes,  which,  we  may  suppose,  were  the 
favourite  works  of  the  wonderful  soldier —his 
*'  heart's  library,"  to  which  the  great  disrated 
could  turn  at  any  time  for  recreation,  forgetful- 
ness  or  consolation.  The  first  masters  of  French 
literature  were  nearly  all  represented,  for  a  part 
if  not  all  of  their  masterpieces,  and  there  lies  not 
a  little  pathos  in  the  fact  that  the  works  on  which 
his  youthful  mind  had  fed  at  Brienne  ever  held  the 
first  place  in  his  interest.  Historical  tomes  were 
numerous,  and  among  English  books  we  find  a 
translation  of  Gibbon,  a  translation  of  Paradise 
Lost  and  Hamilton's  Memoirs  of  de  Grammont. 
There  is  also  a  Bible  in  eight  volumes  and  a 
history  of  Bonaparte  as  First  Consul,  in  three 
volumes.  These  apart,  it  is  History — History 
everywhere,  the  story  of  human  action  to  which 
he  was  to  contribute  so  vast  a  chronicle  himself. 


60  THE  IMPERIAL  STUDENT 

At  the  death  of  the  Duke  of  Reichstadt,  in  the 
third  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century,  all  these 
volumes  passed  into  the  possession  of  the 
Emperors  of  Austria,  and  are  now  shelved  in  the 
vast  Hofburg  Library  in  Vienna  in  a  special 
section  devoted  to  the  legend  of  this  mighty 
adversary  of  the  House  of  Habsburg. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE   IMPERIAL   CRITIC 

Frenchmen  and  Conieille — Value  of  Napoleotis 
Criticism — His  Literanj  Likes  and  Dislikes — His 
Opinion  of  Corneille  and  Moliere — A  Discussion  of 
Tragedy — Napoleon  and  Raynouard — Concerning 
Voltaire — A  Reading  by  Talma — Napoleon  and  the 
Public  Taste — Love  and  Tragedy — A  Literary  Ghost 
— The  Emperor  s  Criticism  of  the  Mneid,  Book  II. — 
His  Opinion  of  the  Iliad — Dislike  of  Shakespeare — 
A  Hypercritical  View 


FRENCHMEN  are  agreed,  we  think,  in 
assigning  to  Corneille  the  place  which 
Enghshmen  give  to  Shakespeare,  or 
Germans  to  Goethe ;  and,  as  every  school- 
boy knows,  in  France,  England  and  Germany, 
there  may  be  found  large  bodies  of  opinion 
which,  excluding  all  possible  competitors,  home 
or  foreign,  accord  their  champion,  as  against 
the  rest  of  the  world's  illuminati,  a  position 
corresponding  to  that  which  certain  theological 
universities  are  wont  to  confer  on  their  most 
distinguished  scholar  —  namely,  the  degree  of 
Solus.  Although  we  prefer  to  leave  to  profounder 
judges  of  the  literary  arts  all  decisions  in  matters 
of  this  nature,  and  though  far  from  accepting  the 
literary  criticism  of  the  great  soldier  as  possessing 
much  value  beyond  that  of  an  extraordinary 
judge  of  human  nature  and  human  motives,  we 
maintain,  nevertheless,  that  the  judgments  of  so 
important  a  student  as  Napoleon  may  always 
be  placed  with,  at  least,  corrective  results  beside 
those  of  really  competent  professional  critical 
judges,  and  competent  critics,  it  may  be  said,  are 
nearly  as  rare  as  Napoleons.  xA.s  he  has  assured 
us  himself,  Napoleon  was  no  great  admirer  of 
Shakespeare ;  his  regard  for  Goethe  we  have 
dwelt  upon  in  another  chapter,  and  shown  that 
it  Avas  based  partly  on  the  psychological  study  of 
Werther  and  partly  on  the  second-hand  opinions, 
given  to  him  by  Talleyrand,  by  Lannes  and  by 
other  men  of  purely  political  affairs,  regarding  the 
tremendous   prestige   that  the   Sage  of  Weimar 

62 


SHAKESPEAREAN  DRAMA  63 

enjoyed  among  the  conservative  elements  of 
Germany,  Avhich  then,  as  now,  made  the  most 
of  its  chosen  literary  instruments. 

Shakespeare,  said  Napoleon,  in  effect,  would 
never  have  enjoyed  the  universal  renown  which 
was  his,  had  it  not  been  that  Voltaire,  an  exile 
in  England  desirous  of  flattering  Englishmen, 
introduced  the  study  of  the  English  dramatist 
to  Frenchmen.  Hamlet^  the  exile  boasted,  he 
only  saw  played  once  in  his  life,  Macbeth  twice, 
Othello  once,  and  what  he  had  seen  of  Shakespeare 
had  not  encouraged  him  to  further  study  of  the 
English  style  of  drama.  On  the  other  hand, 
he  had  seen  Le  Cid  eight  times,  Polyeucte  six 
times,  Cinna  twelve  times,  CEdvpe  nine  times. 
The  English  dramatist  he  considered  to  be  lacking 
in  political  insight  and  to  possess  a  genius  which 
was  more  applicable  to  the  study  of  bourgeois 
or  provincial  situations  and  conditions  than 
adapted  for  intrigues  enacted  on  a  grand  and 
imposing  plane,  and  held  that  the  colonising 
gifts  of  the  British,  by  spreading  the  English 
language,  had  done  more  towards  universalising 
the  Bard  of  Avon  than  any  intrinsical  genius 
shown  by  his  works. 

"  Corneille  was,  on  the  contrary,"  said 
Napoleon,  "  at  the  supreme  head  of  all  the 
tragical  poets  of  all  time.  He  had  divined  the 
real  nature  of  politics,  and  had  he  been  trained 
to  affairs,  would  have  made  a  great  statesman. 
It  is  not  his  versification  that  I  admire  most,  but 
his  great  sense  of  actualities,  his  vast  knowledge 


64  THE  IMPERIAL  CRITIC 

of  the  human  heart,  the  profundity  of  his  poHtical 
nous.  France  owes  to  the  sentiments  which  he 
has  voiced  many  glorious  results.  The  fatalism 
of  the  ancients  Corneille  has  replaced  by  the 
reasoned  philosophy  of  State-politics,  and  he 
is  the  only  one  among  the  poets  of  France  who 
has  seized  upon  this  truth.  Had  he  lived  in  my 
time  I  would  have  created  him  a  prince."  So 
enthusiastic,  indeed,  was  the  Emperor  for  the 
great  French  poet  that  at  one  time  he  expressed 
his  intention  of  ennobling  the  living  descendants 
of  Corneille  and  of  granting  them  suitable  pensions 
for  the  maintenance  of  their  dignity. 

Of  Moliere's  comedies  he  was  no  great  admirer, 
since  tragedy,  in  his  opinion,  was  the  only  form 
of  the  drama  which  had  a  really  educative  value, 
or  any  inspiration  worthy  of  the  name.  Tartuffe, 
he  admitted,  however,  to  be  one  of  the  master- 
pieces of  the  stage,  yet  a  piece  for  which  he  would 
not  himself  have  granted  a  theatrical  licence, 
owing  to  the  way  in  which  it  ridiculed  devotional 
piety.  Racine  he  esteemed  very  highly,  and  had 
witnessed  Bajazet  seven  times,  Iphigenie  ten 
times,  and  Phedre  on  an  equal  number  of  occa- 
sions. Mithridate,  in  respect  of  its  famous  plan 
of  campaign,  he  declared  to  be  worthless,  although 
as  a  work  of  art  this  drama  appealed  to  him, 
Racine  representing,  in  his  view,  on  the  whole, 
the  somewhat  "  easy-going  philanthropism "  of 
the  latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

Raynouard's  Templiers  he  witnessed  three  times, 
and  disapproving  of  it  for  political  reasons,  com- 


NAPOLEON  OBJECTS  65 

manded  the  author  to  come  to  the  Tuileries  in 
order  to  discuss  Tragedy  with  him.  The  char- 
acter of  King  PhiHppe-le-Bel,  in  this  piece,  had, 
it  may  be  said,  been  depreciated,  although  in  the 
opinion  of  the  Emperor  he  had  been  a  good  King 
and  France  had  not  been  too  rich  in  good 
monarchs.  He  had,  said  Napoleon,  been  the 
first  to  put  the  Pope  in  his  place,  and  had  worked 
for  the  people  in  his  attempt  to  destroy  the  Order 
of  the  Templars — composed  mainly  of  younger 
sons  and  possessing  the  third  of  the  kingdom's 
wealth — which  had  ceased  to  possess  any  utili- 
tarian value,  but  had  become  dangerous  to 
the  State.  The  Emperor's  conversation  with 
Raynouard  throws  an  interesting  light  upon  his 
conception  of  the  drama. 

"  You  should  have  represented  the  King,"  said 
Napoleon,  "  in  the  act  of  declaring  to  a  Council 
of  his  Ministers  that  he  intended  to  abolish  the 
Order.  The  Grand  Master  would  then  refuse  to 
dissolve  the  Brotherhood  and  Philippe  would 
finally  be  compelled  to  sentence  him  to  death." 

"  My  conception,"  replied  Raynouard,  "  was 
to  make  the  King  a  weak  character  in  order  to 
enhance  the  dramatic  situation  by  leaving  the 
spectator  in  doubt  whether  the  King  would  prove 
harsh  or  merciful  to  the  Order — whether  he  would 
suppress  it,  or  not." 

"  But,"  objects  the  Emperor,  "  the  King  in 
this  case  represents  the  nation,  and  the  nation 
is  opposed  to  the  Templars,  who  are  a  band  of 
oligarchs    working    for    their    own    interest    and 


66  THE  IMPERIAL  CRITIC 

against  that  of  the  people.  The  latter  must, 
therefore,  be  on  the  side  of  their  real  representa- 
tive— the  King.  Your  correct  dramatic  situa- 
tion would  have  been  to  show  Philippe  bringing 
about  a  magnificent  and  spectacular  coup  d'etat 
by  abolishing  a  veritable  impei'ium  in  imperio. 
A  King  of  France  can  be  put  on  the  stage  only 
to  be  admired.  Again,  you  must  get  this  point 
into  your  head — namely,  that  Politics  plays  in 
modern  drama  the  role  that  Fate  played  in  the 
drama  of  the  Ancients." 

And  the  Emperor  goes  on  to  show  where  the 
poet's  technique  fails  in  the  following  lines 
which  Philippe  addresses  to  the  rebelHous  Grand 
Master  : — 

"  Choose  between  my  clemency  and  my  hatred — 
The  scaffold  awaits  you  !  " 

"  That,"  cries  Napoleon,  "  is  altogether  wrong  ! 
A  King  does  not  talk  of  his  hatred,  but  of  his 
justice.  He  may  consign  to  the  scaffold,  but 
never  talks  of  one." 

On  the  subject  of  Brutus,  the  work  of  Voltaire, 
whose  style  the  Emperor  declared  to  be  full  of 
turgidity  and  tinsel  (de  boursouflure  et  de  clin- 
quant) and  whose  temperament  was  incapable  of 
understanding  men  and  matters,  or  the  move- 
ment of  the  passions.  Napoleon  said  : 

"  The  Romans  were  guided  by  the  love  of  their 
country,  just  as  we  are  by  our  honour.  Now, 
Voltaire  does  not  depict  the  true  sublimity  of 
Brutus  sacrificing  his   children,  despite  his  own 


DISLIKE  OF  VOLTAIRE  67 

agony,  for  the  safety  of  Rome  ;  he  makes  of  iiim 
a  monster  of  pride  sacrificing  them  at  a  great 
crisis  solely  to  the  glorification  of  his  own  name. 
The  whole  tragedy  is  of  a  kind,  and  Lucretia 
becomes  a  madwoman  who  almost  glories  in 
the  seduction  which  must  make  the  ages  talk  of 
her." 

And  of  the  same  author's  Mahomet  he  tells  us 
that  the  Prophet  is  nothing  better  than  an  im- 
postor who  might  have  been  brought  up  at  the 
Ecole  Polytechnique ;  he  is  made  to  murder  his 
father — an  entirely  wrong  idea,  says  Napoleon, 
who  adds  that  really  great  men  are  never 
ciniel  without  necessity.  Altogether  Voltaire's 
Mahomet  is  too  little  for  Napoleon,  who  gives 
instructions  on  one  occasion  to  Monsieur  de 
Fontanes  saying  : 

"  /  will  reconstruct  the  plays  and  you  can 
look  after  the  versification." 

Legouve  was  another  dramatist  who  came  under 
Imperial  criticism,  when  his  Death  of  Henri  IV. 
was  submitted  to  the  Censor.  Talma  was  com- 
manded to  read  the  play  and  the  Imperial  family, 
including  Josephine,  was  present  for  the  occasion. 
A  line  sonorously  declaimed  by  the  great  tragedic 
actor  awakens  the  Imperial  ire.     It  runs  : 

"  Je  tremble — je  ne  sais  quel  noir  pressentiment.  .  .  ." 

This  is  too  much  for  Napoleon's  conception  of 
kingliness  ;  he  interrupts  Talma  at  once,  declar- 
ing that  the  phrasing  must  be  altered  : 

"  A  King  may  tremble,"  he  explains,  "  since 


68  THE  IMPERIAL  CRITIC 

he  is  a  man  like  other  men ;    but  he  should  never 
admit  it." 

The  words  are  accordingly  changed  and  Talma 
goes  on  to  describe  how  some  bloody  villain 
creeps  forward  and  plunges  ten  inches  of  dagger 
into  the  royal  chest. 

"  Le  pauvre  homme  !  L 'excellent  homme  !  " 
cries  Napoleon,  with  obvious  after-thoughts, 
while  poor  Josephine,  ires  cmue,  turns  on  the 
opportune  tear. 

A  certain  Nicolo  Buonaparte,  a  resident  of 
Florence,  wrote  a  comedy  in  1568,  called  La 
Vedova  (The  Widow),  and  Napoleon,  with  praise- 
worthy family  pride,  wished  to  have  the  play 
translated  and  produced  in  Paris  in  his  day.  It 
was  found,  however,  that  the  work  was  far  too 
indecent  even  for  that  age,  and  accordingly  was 
not  acted.  Nevertheless,  Napoleon  made  few 
mistakes  in  his  judgments  as  to  what  the  public 
really  wanted,  and  the  views  of  the  people, 
dramatists  always  admitted,  in  nearly  all  cases 
coincided  with  those  of  the  Emperor,  a  fact  which 
may  recommend  itself  to  many  psychologists  of 
History,  who  tell  us,  with  considerable  cogency, 
that  the  great  leaders  of  any  epoch  are  almost 
invariably  men  who  constitute  in  themselves  a 
kind  of  resume  of  the  mentality  and  tempera- 
mentality  of  the  age  in  which  they  live.  Arnault 
once  read  his  Dom  Pedro,  or  The  Prince  and  the 
Peasant,  to  the  Emperor,  who  was  far  from 
charmed  to  hear  an  agricultural  labourer  giving 
counsel  to  a  sovereign. 


A  LITERARY  GHOST  69 

"  Your  peasant  is  a  tribune  of  the  Plebs,"  he 
told  the  author,  "  and  I  don't  care  for  him." 
So,  too,  thought  the  first-nighters,  who  hissed 
the  piece  rather  severely  on  its  presentation.  It 
was  the  opinion  of  the  Corsican  that  Corneille 
alone  knew  how  to  make  kings  act  and  talk,  j^ 
verse  being  only  the  embroidery  of  the  dramatic 
stuff,  as  he  expressed  it  in  his  excellent  native 
mother-wit.  To  Baour-Lormian,  who  had  written 
a  tragedy  called  Mahomet  II.,  Napoleon,  dislik- 
ing the  piece,  declared  that  love  scenes  were  of 
no  use  in  tragical  pieces,  and  that  the  serious 
dramatist  should  rely  on  history  rather  than 
on  romance  for  his  effects.  What  the  author 
wanted  was  large  conceptions  ;  the  word-painting 
and  the  ringing  phrase  could  wait. 

We  must  not  overlook  the  tradition  that 
Napoleon  was  himself  the  composer  of  a  tragedy 
called  Hector,  the  authorship  of  which  was  said 
to  have  been  officially  attributed  to  an  alleged 
literary  ghost.  Luce  de  Lancival.  This  gentle- 
man, who  had  already  written  several  plays,  was 
without  apparent  reason  one  day  given  the 
Legion  of  Honour  and  a  pension  worth  £300 
a  year.  Some  obscure  pamphleteer  sought  in  a 
publication  to  show  that  Lancival's  Hector  was 
really  the  work  of  Bonaparte  himself,  who  had 
once  wiled  away  the  empty  hours  of  his  incar- 
ceration in  the  Temple,  many  years  before,  in 
composing  this  tragedy.  On  attaining  to  supreme 
power  he  resurrected  his  lucubration,  confiding 
it  to  Lancival  for  alterations  and  repairs.     The 


70  THE  IMPERIAL  CRITIC 

dramatist  did  all  that  was  required  of  him, 
tenderly  edited  Hector  and  submitted  it,  in  his 
own  name,  to  the  Theatre  Franyais,  where  it  was 
swiftly  turned  down  with  Homeric  honours.  A 
few  days  afterwards,  during  a  rehearsal,  an  aide- 
de-camp  arrived  at  the  theatre  with  the  following 
letter  addressed  to  the  director  : — 

"  The  mummers  (histrions)  of  the  Theatre 
Fran^ais  will  immediately  start  rehearsing  the 
tragedy  Hector,  which  they  had  the  audacity  and 
ill-taste  to  refuse.  Signed :  Nap."  When  we 
have  added  that  the  above  story  appears  in  a 
pamphlet  entitled,  Bonaparte,  his  Family  and  his 
Court,  by  a  Chamberlain  malgre  lui,  we  think  the 
credibility  of  this  pamphleteer  becomes  a  little 
more  than  suspect. 

Brother  Scots  will  be  interested  to  hear  that  a 
play  entitled  Edward  in  Scotland,  by  Alexander 
Duval,  was  enacted  in  1802,  and  the  audience 
much  applauded  a  scene  in  which  the  Pretender 
retorts  to  an  English  colonel,  who  proposes  as  a 
toast  the  death  of  all  who  support  the  Stuarts  : 
"  I  drink  the  death  of  no  man,"  says  Charles 
James,  and  the  public  applauded,  thinking  of  the 
exiled  Bourbons,  no  doubt.  Bonaparte  went  to 
see  the  play  and  Duval  affects  to  think  that  the 
First  Consul  shed  a  tear  over  the  sufferings  of  the 
poor  Stuart  exile  !  Bourbon  partisans  who  were 
present,  like  the  Due  de  Choiseul,  took  every 
available  opportunity  of  making  demonstrations, 
and  Bonaparte  had  the  play  withdrawn.  Some 
indication  of  the  political  temper  of  those  days 


VIRGIL  EXAMINED  71 

is  also  shown  in  the  extra-theatrical  comedy 
which  attended  on  the  representation  of  a  play 
called  U Antichambre,  by  Dupaty,  in  which  the 
Consular  court  comes  in  for  considerable  ridicule, 
Bonaparte  himself  being  mimicked,  as  well  as 
members  of  his  family.  In  his  first  anger 
the  Consul  sentenced  the  author  to  exile  in  San 
Domingo,  but  pardoned  him  as  he  was  taking 
ship  at  Brest  for  the  West  Indies. 

The  Imperial  critic  on  one  occasion  delivered 
his  opinion  of  Virgil  in  the  following  words  : — 

*'  The  Second  Book  of  the  ^Eneid  is  held  to  be  the 
masterpiece  of  this  epic,  and  it  certainly  deserves 
the  reputation,  considered  from  the  point  of  style. 
I  cannot,  however,  rate  it  very  high  from  other 
points  of  view.  Thus,  the  wooden  horse  may 
have  been  a  popular  tradition,  but  to  introduce 
it  into  an  epic  poem  is  ridiculous  and  entirely 
unworthy  of  a  grandiose  theme.  You  will  find 
nothing  like  this  in  the  IHad,  where  everything 
conforms  strictly  and  truthfully  to  the  real 
practice  of  war.  How  can  we  imagine  the 
Trojans  so  stupid  as  not  to  have  thought  of  send- 
ing a  fishing-smack  to  the  island  of  Tenedos,  in 
sight  of  Troy,  in  order  to  assure  themselves  if 
the  thousand  ships  of  the  Greeks  had  reached 
there,  or  if  they  were  on  their  way  to  attack  the 
city  ?  How  can  we  believe  that  Ulysses  and  his 
friends  were  such  fools  as  to  risk  putting  them- 
selves into  the  hands  of  their  enemies  by  cribbing 
themselves  in  that  ridiculous  wooden  machine  ? 
And  supposing  the^iorse  to  have  contained  even 


72  THE  IMPERIAL  CRITIC 

one  hundred  armed  men — how  could  such  a 
weight  have  been  moved  to  the  walls  of  Troy, 
across  the  bay  and  over  two  rivers  which  were 
overlooked  by  the  very  towers  of  the  citadel  ? 

"  The  tragic  episode  of  the  sons  of  Laokoon, 
however  impressive,  cannot  excuse  the  absurdity 
of  the  narrative,  which  really  shows  that  the 
destruction  of  Troy  and  the  entire  action  of  the 
Second  Book  were  executed  and  accomplished 
within  the  space  of  a  few  hours—  an  achievement 
which  must  in  practice  have  required  at  least  a 
fortnight.  Had  Homer  described  the  fall  of 
Troy  he  would  not  have  treated  it  simply  as 
one  treats  the  taking  of  a  fort.  Homer  had 
seen  war,  whilst  Virgil  had  simply  thought  out 
his  ideas  of  war  like  a  schoolmaster  who  knows 
his  book.  It  took  Scipio  seventeen  days  to  raze 
Carthage  to  the  ground ;  and  Moscow  was  burned 
out  only  after  eleven  had  passed.  The  Third 
Book  is  but  a  copy  of  the  Odyssey,  while  the 
Fourth  lacks  every  agreement  with  the  dramatic 
unities. 

"  The  Iliad,"  said  Napoleon,  "  is  like  Genesis 
and  the  Bible,  and  is  for  all  time.  Homer  was 
at  once  a  poet,  an  orator,  an  historian,  a  legislator, 
a  geographer  and  a  theologian.  He  is  the 
Encyclopaedist  of  his  epoch.  The  universal 
approval  which  men  have  given  him  has  been 
well  won  and  I  have  always  read  him  with 
enthusiasm.  A  contrast  which  much  struck  me 
in  Homer  was  the  coarseness  of  social  habits  and 
the   ethical   grandeur   of  ideas — heroes    hunting 


THE  BARD  OF  AVON  78 

game  and  dressing  their  own  food,  yet  moving 
worlds  to  vast  endeavour  with  their  eloquence." 

And  here  finally  is  what  the  Emperor  had 
to  say  of  the  Bard  of  Avon,  whom  he  had 
read,  we  imagine,  only  through  the  medium  of 
translations  : 

"  Certain  French  people  fall  in  love  with 
England  at  first  sight,  and  are  willing  to  accept 
one  single  opinion  as  sufficing  to  settle  finally 
the  matter  of  England's  literary  glory.  But 
Shakespeare  was  forgotten  for  two  centuries  even 
in  England.  It  pleased  Voltaire,  then  in  Geneva 
and  seeing  much  English  society  at  the  time, 
to  praise  the  English  poet  in  order  to  flatter  his 
great  friends  from  London.  It  became  the  fashion 
to  call  Shakespeare  the  greatest  writer  of  all 
time.  I  have  read  Shakespeare,  however,  and 
can  say  that  there  is  nothing  in  him  which 
approaches  either  Corneille  or  Racine.  It  is 
impossible  indeed  to  read  his  plays  seriously. 
Myself  I  find  them  so  feeble  as  to  be  almost 
pitiful.  As  for  Milton,  there  is  only  his  address 
to  the  Sun  and  a  few  other  pieces  which  count 
for  anything ;  the  rest  is  mere  rhapsody.  And 
I  much  prefer  Vely  to  Hume.  France  has  no 
cause  to  envy  England  for  anything ;  even 
her  own  citizens  desert  her  as  soon  as  they 
can." 

Napoleon  once  objected  to  La  Fontaine's  famous 
fable  of  the  Wolf  and  the  Lamb  on  the  ground 
that  it  taught  might  to  be  greater  than  right, 
and  was  consequently  bad  for  children.     It  was 


74  THE  IMPERIAL  CRITIC 

immoral,  he  further  held,  because  the  wolf  was 
not  choked  when  he  devoured  the  lamb  ! 

In  History  he  stood  out  for  Machiavelli,  saying  : 
"  Tacitus  wrote  novels.  Gibbon  is  a  brawler. 
]Machiavelli  is  the  only  historian  worth  reading." 


CHAPTER  IV 
THE   IMPERIAL   THEATRE 


Talma  and  Bonaparte — The  Actor  coaches  the  First 
Cotisid — The  Emperor  coaches  the  Actor — Frie7idly 
Relations  of  the  Ttvain — Napoleon  on  Critics  and 
his  Love  for  Cinna — Concerning  Mademoiselle  Mars 
a7td  her  Sister — An  Unexpected  Scene — Mademoiselle 
Boiirgoin  and  Chaptal — An  Imperial  Rebuke 


IT  is  unfortunate  that  Talma,  the  Kean 
of  the  French  stage,  should  have  left  us 
next  to  nothing  in  the  way  of  records 
dealing  with  his  long  and  uninterrupted 
intimacy  with  Napoleon  whom  he  had  known 
in  the  days  which  followed  on  the  Toulon 
episode,  when  the  young  Corsican  was  an  un- 
employed ex-commandant  in  Paris.  There  are 
letters  extant — suspect,  it  must  be  added — in 
which  the  poor  officer  writes  to  the  affluent  and 
friendly  actor,  asking  him  if  he  has  a  few  dollars 
(ecus)  at  his  disposal,  and  it  is  to  Talma,  we  think, 
that  young  Bonaparte  confessed  that  he  had  once 
put  his  watch  in  pawn  for  a  couple  of  pieces  of 
gold.  Of  all  the  celebrities  on  the  stage  of  that 
period.  Talma  alone  enjoyed  an  intimacy  with 
Napoleon,  which  came  near  to  that  possessed  by 
Duroc,  the  Earl  Marshal  of  the  Empire,  and  the 
only  individual  to  whom  the  Corsican  allowed 
the  privilege  of  free  brotherly  speech  with  him- 
self. The  Emperor  at  St  Helena  gave  the  dis- 
claimer to  the  many  stories  which  charged  him 
with  having  been  a  bad  borrower,  when  he  said 
that  he  and  Talma  only  became  acquainted  in 
1800.  Talma  also  denied  the  suggestions.  Others 
assert  that  they  had  known  each  other  since 
1790. 

Whatever  the  facts,  and  they  are  not  of  very 
great  importance,  there  is  no  doubt  that  in  1802 
Talma  began  to  pay  very  frequent  visits  to  the 
First  Consul,  in  the  course  of  which,  it  is  said,  the 
great  actor  used  to  give  the  chief  of  the  State 


TAL.MA    AS    NERO 


THE  SCHOOL  FOR  KINGS  77 

lessons  in  princely  deportment,  a  course  of  in- 
struction the  real  significance  of  which  could  not 
have  escaped  the  astute  Frenchman.  Admirers 
of  Bonaparte  who  attributed  all  god-like  gifts  to 
their  hero,  denied  that  the  Corsican  had  ever 
sought  instruction  from  an  actor  how  to  play  the 
monarch,  and  if  the  lessons  were  ever  given,  it  is 
to  be  feared  that  Napoleon  was  no  very  apt  pupil, 
since  sound  tradition  has  it  that  he  was  the  least 
graceful  or  imposing  of  princes  in  respect  of 
presence  and  courtly  bearing.  Nor  can  it  be  said 
that  Napoleon  derived  much  benefit  from  Talma's 
lessons  in  elocution,  for,  to  the  end,  the  great 
soldier,  whatever  he  may  have  been  in  private, 
or  in  the  council  chamber,  was  a  failure  as  a  public 
speaker — except  on  the  eve  of  conflict.  That  the 
Corsican  really  took  lessons  in  deportment  and 
elocution  from  his  great  contemporary  is,  how- 
ever, our  own  fixed  belief,  and  we  see  no  reason 
either  for  refusing  to  believe  the  fact  or  for 
holding  Napoleon  up  to  ridicule  on  this  account. 
We  have  noted  that,  like  the  admirably  thorough 
being  he  ever  was,  Bonaparte  had  studied  out  the 
essential  character  and  personality  of  princes  ; 
and  it  is  more  than  likely  that  he  did  not  confine 
his  study  to  learning  only  the  half  of  his  role. 

On  his  own  side,  Napoleon  was  very  free  with 
instructions  to  the  great  tragedian.  For  example, 
after  seeing  Talma  in  the  Death  of  Pompey  in 
1805,  the  Emperor — ^^vho  had  really  been  an 
emperor  since  1800  and  cannot  be  accused  of  too 
much  anxiety  to  show  his  sense  of  the  new  honour 


78  THE  i:\IPERIAL  THEATRE 

— addressed    the    actor    as    to    his    role    in    the 
following  terms  : — 

"  You  ^vork  your  arms  too  freely  and  are  too 
full  of  gesture.  The  head  of  an  empire  is  more 
economical  of  his  movements  ;  he  is  fully  aware 
that  a  sign  is  an  order,  that  a  look  means  death, 
and  is  therefore  sparing  of  both.  There  is  also 
in  the  play  a  verse  the  meaning  of  which  escapes 
you,  Talma,  who  seem  to  be  too  convinced,  too 
sincere  when  you  declaim  the  line  : 

"  '  For  me,  who  think  a  throne  to  be  an  infamy  .  .  .' 

"  Caesar,  when  he  speaks  these  words,  does  not 
mean  the  least  of  them,  and  talks  in  this  strain 
only  because  he  is  surrounded  by  Romans  to 
whom  he  wishes  to  convey  the  idea  that  he  has 
a  horror  of  kings.  He  is,  however,  far  from 
thinking  the  throne  contemptible.  On  the  con- 
trary, it  is  the  first  object  of  his  whole  life.  You 
must  not  make  a  Caesar  talk  as  a  Brutus  would 
talk." 

Again,  after  witnessing  Britannicus,  Napoleon 
criticises  Talma  in  the  following  words  : — 

"  Your  acting  of  Nero  does  not  quite  satisfy 
me,  and  in  that  role  I  should  like  to  see  more  of 
the  conflict  between  a  bad  character  and  a  good 
education.  You  should  make  fewer  gestures  ;  a 
nature  like  Nero's  has  little  external  show,  being 
too  self-centred.  Nevertheless,  I  like  the  simple 
and  natural  forms  which  you  have  restored  to 
tragedy.  When  men  of  exalted  rank  are  moved 
by  passion,  their  language  becomes  more  energetic 


TALMA  AT  COURT  79 

without  being  less  natural.  For  example,  you 
and  I  are  now  conversing  in  an  ordinary  way  ; 
nevertheless  we  are  making  history." 

When  the  First  Consul  becomes  FiUiperor,  Talma 
fears  to  present  himself  at  the  Imperial  Court 
until  the  new  sovereign,  noticing  his  continued 
absence,  asks  if  the  great  actor  is  angry  with  him 
for  any  reason.  After  which  Talma  presents  him- 
self and  pleases  Napoleon  because  he  dresses  in 
appropriate  good  taste  for  his  courtly  role.  So 
Napoleon  takes  the  opportunity  of  continuing  his 
instructions  to  Talma,  and  we  get  the  following 
monologue  : — 

"  Talma,  you  often  visit  me,  and  you  can  see 
things  as  they  are  :  Princesses  deprived  of  their 
lovers,  Princes  who  have  lost  their  States,  Kings 
degraded  by  war  from  their  sovereign  rank, 
Generals  who  aspire  to  and  beg  for  thrones. 
Around  me  you  can  see  fallen  ambitions,  never- 
ceasing  intrigues  and  rivalries,  sorrows  and  afflic- 
tion— all  covered  with  courtier-like  maskery. 
Here,  assuredly,  is  Tragedy  enough  for  anyone  ; 
my  Palace  is  full  of  it,  and  even  I  am  myself  the 
most  tragical  figure  in  this  big  cast  of  tragedy. 
Well  now  !  Do  you  see  any  of  us  strike  attitudes, 
or  affect  the  airs  and  poses  of  grandeur,  or  hear 
us  cry  out  in  our  triumphs  or  in  our  anguish  ? 
No,  indeed  !  We  are  all  perfectly  natural  and 
speak  just  as  ordinary  men  speak  when  moved 
by  interest  or  by  passion.  And  it  was  in  just  the 
same  way  that  the  great  makers  of  history  acted 
in  their  own  day  and  in  the  process  of  their  own 


80  THE  IMPERIAL  THEATRE 

tragedies.     There,  now,  you  have  something  on 

which  to  meditate  !  " 

4  All  of  which  makes  the  reader  rather  sorry  for 

f  ^    the  actor  to  whom  Napoleon  thought  it  necessary 

.^        to  address  so  crude  a  sermon  of  banalities — if  he 

^  '         ever  did  ;  and  we  very  much  doubt  it. 

Talma  once  pretended  to  discern  in  the  profile  of 
Alexander  the  Great,  as  shown  by  a  rare  cameo, 
some  resemblance  to  Napoleon — a  likeness  which 
certainly  did  not  exist,  if  ancient  coins  tell  the 
truth.  The  Emperor  professed  to  be  pleased  and 
presented  Talma  with  the  cameo.  Napoleon 
many  times  paid  the  great  actor's  debts — to  a 
total  amount,  according  to  the  Imperial  account- 
books,  of  half-a-milhon  francs,  or  £20,000.  Cer- 
tainly Talma  was  never  guilty  of  ingratitude  to 
the  Corsican.  In  view  of  the  number  of  knight- 
hoods which  have  been  distributed  within  later 
times  to  the  various  prominent  actors  and  singers 
of  our  own  age,  by  European  sovereigns,  it  is 
interesting  to  learn  from  the  Memoirs  of  Las  Cases 
that  Napoleon  once  declared  it  had  been  his 
intention  to  decorate  Talma  with  the  Legion  of 
Honour,  and  that  only  the  fear  of  a  public  outcry 
against  such  an  official  distinguishing  of  a  mere 
actor  caused  him  to  alter  his  decision.  It  was 
from  Talma  that  Bonaparte  on  his  return  from 
Italy  to  Paris  purchased  the  hotel  in  the  rue  de 
la  Victoire — formerly  rue  Chantereine — and  it 
was  in  this  house  that  the  actor  made  up  a  list 
of  entertainers  whom,  he  suggested  the  General 
should  take  with  him  to  Egypt :  Rigel,  a  pianist  of 


THE  R6LE  ;0F  the  critic  81 

note ;  Grandmaison,  a  poet ;  Villoteau,  a  baritone 
— the  type  of  male  voice  which  Napoleon  most 
favoured,  we  may  state — and  Arnault,  a  dramatic 
poet  and  author  of  Les  Venetiens,  who  admitted 
that  the  Corsican  had  collaborated  with  him  in 
the  composition  of  that  play. 

It  was  also  to  Talma,  who  had  just  presented 
his  friend  the  poet  Lemercier,  that  Bonaparte 
declared  that  criticism  which  was  not  con- 
structive was  of  no  value  whatsoever,  since,  as  he 
said,  a  valet-de-chambre  can  find  words  for  simple 
or  gratuitous  criticism.  One  of  the  visitors 
objected  that  the  matter  of  good  taste  might 
possibly  be  beyond  the  intelligence  of  a  menial, 
and  Napoleon  answered  : 

"  That   is    just    another    conventional   term — 
good    taste !     What    can    the    matter    of    good     ~^ 
taste  mean  to  a  man  who  works  on  original  lines       \ 
as  apart  from  novelty  and  the  bizarre  ?     To  me 
it  is   of  the   last  concern  what   another  person 
thinks,  especially  in  accidentals.     Give  me  sound    '1 
argument  and  sound  thought  and  I  am  with  you. 
I  have  tried  to  read  Virgil,  but  he  bored  me,  and 
Ossian  I  read  simply  because,  like  the  waves  of  the 
sea  and  the  winds  of  the  forest,  he  represented 
rough   Nature   to   me.     French   dramatists    and 
authors  attach  too  much  importance  to  what  the 
critics  are  likely  to  say  of  them,  and  the  result  is, 
they  are  handicapped  by  the  fact  that,  on  starting 
to  write,  their  own  natural  expression  is  already 
suffocated.     A  great  author  must  write  to  please    /  . 
himself  and  without  regard  to  standr.rds  which 


82  THE  IMPERIAL  THEATRE 

are  only  conventions  set  up  by  mediocrities  who, 
possessing  no  bel  essor,  cannot  get  beyond  the 
art-Hmitations  by  which  they  seek  to  fetter 
loftier  spirits.  That  is  why  I  place  Corneille 
first  among  all  French  poetic  dramatists ;  he 
had  seen  nothing  of  the  great  world  and  worked 
far  away  from  the  madding  crowd.  Yet  who  can 
approach  him  when  he  excogitates  the  heart  of  a 
prince,  or  the  soul  of  a  leader  of  men  and  presents 
him  on  the  stage  ?  Truth  — the  discovery  of  new 
truth — is  originality,  not  novelty,  not  new  affec- 
tations, not  the  setting-up  of  standards  which 
come  to-day  and  pass  to-morrow.  Human  nature 
always  remains  the  same ;  there  were  no 
conventions  in  the  Garden  of  Eden." 

To  Constant,  the  great  man's  body  servant,  we 
owe  the  recollection  that  a  volume  of  Corneille 
was  always  placed  on  the  Emperor's  table  when 
a  visit  was  paid  by  Talma,  and  Napoleon  would 
open  the  tome  at  Cinna  and  frequently  quote 
from  that  masterpiece  the  lines  : 

"Cesar,  tu  vas  regner.     Voici  le  jour  auguste 
Ou  le  peuple  romain  pour  toi  toujours  injuste." 

On  another  occasion  Lemercier  presented  him 
with  a  copy  of  his  play  Agamemnon,  which  the 
Corsican  criticised  with  great  severity,  declaring 
that  it  was  entirely  lacking  in  courtly  sense. 

"  Strophus  has  no  business  to  reprove  Clytem- 
nestra,"  he  says.     "  Strophus  is  only  a  valet." 

Lemercier  objects  :  "  Strophus  is  a  friend  of 
Agamemnon  ;   he  is  a  dethroned  king." 


MADEMOISELLE  MARS  S3 

"  Psha  !  "  returns  the  Imperial  upstart ;  "  at 
Court  only  the  King  counts.  The  rest  are  but  so 
much  valetry." 

In  Voltaire's  Merope,  he  objects  also  to  the  line  : 

"The  first  of  all  kings  was  a  victorious  soldier," 

and  forbids  Chaptal  to  allow  that  piece  to  be 
produced  because,  as  he  declared,  the  people  had 
not  intelligence  sufficient  to  apprehend  the  real 
meaning  latent  in  that  truism.     Said  he  : 

"  For  me  the  man  who  raises  himself  to  a  throne 
from  nothing,  is  the  first  man  of  his  age.  It  is 
no  question  of  luck,  but  only  merit,  on  the  one 
hand  and  recognition  of  merit  on  the  other." 

The  relations  of  Napoleon  with  the  two  sisters 
called  Mars  are  not  very  well  established,  though 
it  is  accepted  as  historical  that  on  one  occasion 
while  in  the  company  of  the  younger  and  more 
famous  sister,  Napoleon,  at  three  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  had  his  first  epileptic  stroke,  the  whole 
household,  including  the  Imperial  consort,  being 
awakened  to  attend  at  the  Emperor's  bedside, 
where  Josephine  pretended  to  go  into  an  hysterical 
fit  at  the  sight  of  her  hated  rival,  chasing  the 
latter  half-naked  down  the  stairs  to  the  entresol 
and  threatening,  according  to  the  record,  with 
much  shrill  vituperation,  to  "  scratch  her  face," 
to  "pull  her  hair,"  to  "slit  her  nose"— all  in 
the  accepted  style  of  the  perfect  lady  who  toils 
beneath  the  moon  and  sleeps  beneath  the  sun. 

Mademoiselle  Bourgoin  was  another  who  passed 
under   the    notice    of   Napoleon.      This    damsel 


84  THE  IMPERIAL  THEATRE 

was  the  paid  mistress  of  Chaptal,  who  acted  as 
Minister  of  the  Interior  at  the  time  and  was  an 
intimate  and  frequent  collaborant  of  the  Emperor. 
Bourgoin  once  received — very  unexpectedly — 
her  summons  to  attend  on  Caesar's  pleasure, 
and  on  presenting  herself  near  midnight  at  the 
Palace  was  shown  direct  to  Napoleon's  bed- 
room, where,  to  her  consternation,  she  found 
Chaptal  deep  in  statistical  business  with  his 
Imperial  master.  Poor  little  Bourgoin,  who 
misjudged  the  occasion,  thought  well  to  attempt 
a  little  coquetry  on  her  own  account,  all  the  more 
so  since  Napoleon  had  not  even  turned  his  head 
to  look  at  her.  As  she  sought  to  attract  his 
attention,  the  Emperor,  without  raising  his  head 
from  the  table,  ordered  her  to — undress  !  The 
chorus-woman  set  about  divesting  and  laid  her- 
self on  the  Imperial  couch.  Napoleon  then  made 
*,  some  pretence  at  finishing  up  for  the  night  and 
retiring,  whereat  (says  the  chronicler)  old  Chaptal, 
small  wonder,  began  to  sweat  at  every  pore  of 
his  body.  The  Emperor  changed  his  mind, 
however,  and  with  his  Minister  started  on  some 
new  task  which  lasted  a  couple  of  hours.  In  the 
meantime  the  actress  lay  blinking  in  bed,  much 
mystified  by  proceedings  in  Avhich  she  was  entirely 
counted  out,  considerably  hurt  in  her  woman's 
pride,  and  wondering  where  on  earth  she  was 
to  come  in — and  when,  and  how.  At  last  the 
girl  attempted  a  remark,  but  had  hardly  opened 
her  mouth  when  Napoleon  interrupted  her 
brusquely : 


MONSIEUR  DE  CHAPTAL  85 

"Get  up  and  go  home,"  he  said.  "I  do  not 
want  you."    And  the  seance  closed. 

The  authority  for  this  story  is  Chaptal  himself 
in  his  Memoirs  ;  nor  does  he  fail  to  inform  us 
that  he  sent  in  his  resignation  on  the  day  following 
this  studied  and  indeed  cowardly  outrage  on  the 
part  of  the  Corsican,  since  the  Minister  was  not  in  a 
position  to  defend  himself.  It  is  of  Mademoiselle 
Bourgoin,  by  the  way,  that  Napoleon  at  Erfurt 
made  the  remark  to  the  Emperor  Alexander : 

"  Visit  that  woman  and  to-morrow  all  Europe 
will  know  what  your  physical  proportions  are 
from  the  ground  up.  Besides,  I  am  concerned 
about  your  health  " — an  exquisite  remark  which 
carries  its  own  commentary  with  it. 

When  Mademoiselle  Chameroi,  a  well-known 
dancing-woman  at  the  Opera,  passed  to  her 
reward,  the  Vicar  of  Saint-Roch  refused  to  receive 
her  coffin  in  his  church  or  to  celebrate  Mass  for 
the  repose  of  her  soul.  Napoleon  immediately 
instructed  the  Archbishop  of  Paris  to  suspend 
the  Vicar  for  three  months  in  order,  as  he  said, 
to  give  him  time  to  meditate  on  the  fact  that 
Jesus  Christ  had  taught  men  to  pray  for  poor 
sinners,  and  to  cultivate  the  divine  attribute  of 
charity  to  all. 


CHAPTER  V 
MADEMOISELLE   GEORGE 


Standards  of  Beauty — Lessiiig's  View — George  an 
Amazonian  Type — Her  Attraction  for  Bonaparte — 
Their  First  Meeting  at  Saint-Cloud — Affected  Nervous- 
ness of  the  Actress — Napoleon  as  a  Lover — Espionage 
of  Talleyrand — Bonaparte  criticises  the  Actress — His 
Generosity  to  George — A  Visit  to  the  Tuileries — 
Josephine' s  Fit  of  Jealousy — Napoleon's  Coronation — 
George  visits  an  Emperor — Napoleon  and  His  Bonnes 
Fortunes — Where  George  disappointed  her  Lover — 
Her  Veneration  for  Napoleon — A  Costly  Rendezvous 


IF  the  author  of  the  Laocoon  was  right, 
then  we  may  readily  agree  that  there  are 
certain  subjects  that  do  not  altogether 
lend  themselves  to  the  painter's  art.  Wlien 
Helen  raised  her  veil  and  thought  that  act  a 
sufficient  answer  to  the  angry  Senators  who 
accused  her  of  having  brought  calamity  and  de- 
vastation upon  Troy,  the  lady  showed  thnt  the 
opinion  she  entertained  about  her  own  beauty 
was  not  a  poor  one.  But  could  the  first  of 
painters  present  the  most  easily  satisfied  among 
us  with  the  picture  of  a  Helen  who  might  be 
admitted  to  be  worth  a  ten-year  war,  or  show  us 
a  beauty  the  very  absoluteness  of  which  must 
appeal  to  all  tastes  ?  Assuredly  not ;  and  we 
should  ourselves  prefer  the  poet  to  tell  us  of  this 
miracle  of  loveliness,  leaving  it  to  the  reader's 
imagination  to  conjure  up  the  ideal  of  so  fair 
a  creature — although  Lessing  teaches  otherwise. 
Portraiture  has  of  course  dealt,  though  not 
generously,  with  Mademoiselle  George — correctly 
so  spelled — a  favourite  mistress  of  Napoleon,  and 
on  contemplating  various  pictures  which  represent 
this  actress,  we  are  led  to  believe  either  that  the 
Corsican's  taste  was  poor,  or  else  that  the  por- 
traitists of  that  time  were  weak  in  reproducing 
their  sitters.  As  represented  by  the  various 
artists  whom  we  have  seen,  George  would  seem 
to  have  resembled  one  of  those  handsome  but 
hard-faced  Irishwomen  of  the  larger  size,  and  the 
reader  may  not  require  to  be  told  that  certain 
profound  experts  in  the  anthropological  science 

88 


MARGUERITE-JOSEPHINE  89 

have  seriously  questioned  the  absolute  femininity 
of  the  woman  of  Ireland,  the  theory  being  that  she 
suffers  from  an  excess  of  m.asculine  temperament. 
Like  the  majority  of  women  who  have  attained 
to  lofty  rank  in  the  dramatic  and  singing  pro- 
fession, Mademoiselle  George  was  born  of  actors 
and  made  her  first  appearance  on  the  stage  at 
five  years  old — about  1790.  At  the  opening  of 
the  Consulate  she  was  in  her  twenty-second  year, 
and  already  possessed  an  important  prestige 
among  contemporary  actresses — a  prestige  which 
was  mainly  due  then,  as  it  is  now  and  ever  was, 
to  cleverly  organised  reclame  or  press-agency 
work.  Her  vogue  among  the  stage-door  brother- 
hood was  great — much  greater  than  she  admits 
in  her  Me7noirs — and  it  is  to  be  feared,  alas !  that 
Marguerite-Josephine,  to  name  her,  had  dropped 
the  pitcher  very  early  in  life.  When  Bonaparte 
first  met  her  she  was  the  mistress-in-chief 
of  a  certain  Prince  Sapieha,  and  although  she 
emphasises  the  fact  that  a  maiden  aunt  used 
to  look  very  carefully  after  her  morals,  there  is 
valid  ground  for  the  presumption  that  this  old 
virgin  was  herself  really  no  better  than  she 
should  have  been.  The  First  Consul  first  saw 
George  as  Clytemnestra  in  Iphigenia,  and  so 
pleased  was  he  with  the  personality  and  perform- 
ance of  the  young  actress  that  he  sent  Constant 
— his  valet ! — to  her  house,  after  the  play,  with 
instructions  to  solicit  her  to  call  at  Saint-Cloud  on 
the  following  night — a  fair  sample  of  the  Corsican's 
diplomacy  in  delicate  matters  of  the  kind, 


90  MADEMOISELLE  GEORGE 

George,  at  this  point  in  her  MemoirSy  goes  into 
a  ridiculous  description  of  her  "  emotions "  on 
hearing  from  the  body  servant  that  the  First 
Consul  wished  to  meet  her.  We  must  respect 
the  intelligence  of  the  actress,  however,  when  she 
tells  us  that  her  curiosity  in  regard  to  the  young 
Conqueror  overcame  all  other  sentiments  ;  for  the 
feeble  brain  of  an  ordinary  stage-woman  could 
not  have  thought  out  this  little  bit  of  soul- 
analysis  if  she  had  not  really  felt  it.  She  informs 
Constant  of  her  willingness  to  wait  on  the  Consul 
at  the  hour  indicated.  Then,  she  says,  the  whole 
night  preceding  her  visit  was  one  long  misery. 
What  could  the  First  Consul  want  with  her,  she 
wondered.  And  besides,  could  he  not  come 
to  her  ?  Perhaps  it  would  be  better,  after  all, 
to  write  and  decline,  and  then  she  tries  to  think 
what  she  ought  to  wear — white  or  pink ;  a 
confection  or  something  muslin  and  simple  ?  Oh, 
these  dictators — ^what  dreadful  men  they  must 
be  !  And  at  last  she  drops  off  to  sleep.  About 
eight  o'clock  her  maid  awakes  her,  and  noting 
Mademoiselle's  bad  humour,  assures  her  that  other 
rivals  on  the  stage — Volnais,  Bourgoin,  Mars — 
would  much  envy  her  when  they  heard  of  her 
good  fortune.  George,  somewhat  consoled,  orders 
her  carriage  for  the  Bois,  visits  her  coiffeur^  her 
tailor  and  goes  on  to  the  theatre,  where  she 
meets  Talma — mon  hon  Talma.  The  actor  and 
the  manager,  Fleury,  both  congratulate  her,  the 
latter  with  some  narquoiserie^  assuring  her  that 
she  wears  an  air  of  conquest. 


THE  WAY  TO  SAINT-CLOUD  91 

The  actress  goes  home  and  arrays  herself  in 
what  she  describes  as  a  white  musHn  neglige, 
a  lace  veil  and  a  cachemire,  and  on  arriving  at  the 
theatre,  to  wile  the  intervening  hours  away, 
meets  the  actress  Volnais,  who  is  also  out  for  a 
rendezvous. 

"  Do  you  intend  to  see  the  whole  play  out  ?  " 
says  the  latter,  referring  to  the  fashionable  piece 
then  being  acted. 

"  No — ^will  you  ?  "  asks  George. 

"  Nor  I,"  replies  Volnais,  "  I  have  something 
on  about  nine  o'clock  " — meaning  presumably 
that  she  was  to  meet  General  Junot,  for  the 
rendezvous  was  with  him. 

The  Consular  carriage  called  for  George  at 
eight  o'clock,  with  Constant,  the  valet,  in  attend- 
ance, and  the  coachman  was  the  famous  Cesar, 
about  whom  so  many  obvious  jokes  used  to  be 
made.  It  is  a  long  journey  to  Saint-Cloud  — 
four  miles  ? — and  Constant,  under  no  illusions, 
presumably,  as  to  the  quality  of  this  hardened 
actress's  "  trepidation,"  laughed  when  she  told 
him  that  she  felt  very  much  humiliated — *'  which 
I  thought  somewhat  impertinent  on  his  part," 
writes  the  lady.  On  arrival  at  the  Palace, 
Roustan  shows  her  into — a  large  bedroom.  As 
she  nurses  her  nervousness,  the  First  Consul  makes 
his  appearance — in  white  breeches,  black  socks, 
green  uniform  with  red  facings  and  the  famous  hat 
crushed  under  his  arm.  His  first  act  was  to  tear 
her  veil  away  and  tell  her  that  he  had  sent  her 
£120  after  hearing  her  in  some  recent  play. 


c 


92  MADEMOISELLE  GEORGE 

"  I  thought,"  said  he,  "  that  you  might  have 
come  in  person  to  thank  me.  But  e\'idently 
you  are  proud  as  you  are  fair." 

At  this  point  the  actress  complains  that  the 
Hghts  are  too  many  for  her,  and  Bonaparte 
summons  Roustan  to  put  most  of  them  out,  after 
which,  as  is  usual  A\nth  him,  he  wants  to  know 
all  about  her.  George  tells  the  story  and  does 
not  conceal  her  relations  with  Prince  Sapieha. 
The  First  Consul  extracts  a  promise  that  she  will 
visit  himself  occasionally. 

"  He  certainly  w^as  pleased  with  me,"  writes 
George,  "if  he  was  not  quite  in  love,"  adding 
simply  :  "I  begged  off  on  this  occasion,  but 
promised  faithfully  that  I  would  return.  He  put 
on  my  veil  for  me  and  then  kissed  me  on  the 
forehead,  at  which  I  began  to  laugh,  telling  him 
he  had  kissed  a  present  given  me  by  Sapieha, 
wiiereupon  he  tore  the  veil  into  a  thousand 
shreds  and  trampled  on  my  shawl,  took  the  ring 
from  my  finger,  crushing  it  beneath  his  heel  and 
even  pulling  off  a  little  chain  I  wore.  Then  he 
summoned  Roustan,  ordering  him  to  fetch  a  new 
veil  and  a  shawl  and  telling  me  I  was  to  wear  only 
what  he  gave  me." 

This  was  the  first  interview  with  the  First 
Consul,  and  Constant  took  the  actress  home 
again.  In  the  course  of  the  next  day.  Talma 
called  on  her  and,  in  answer  to  her  hesitations, 
told  the  actress  that  she  must  be  very  foolish 
not  to  take  advantage  of  her  good  fortune.  Like 
the  good  Frenchman  he  was,  moreover,  the  actor 


"  ELECTRICITY  OF  L0\^  "  93 

advised  George,  if  she  feared  any  embarrassments 
as  a  result  of  her  Uaison  with  Bonaparte,  to  get 
married  right  away.  He  persuaded  her,  in  any 
case,  to  pay  her  promised  visit  to  Bonaparte,  and 
accordingly  George  returned  to  Saint-Cloud  that 
night. 

On  this  occasion  Bonaparte,  according  to  the 
actress,  took  great  pains  to  spare  her  all  shock 
to  her  sense  of  what  Avas  proper,  and  indulged 
in  sentimental  comedy  to  the  extent  of  asking 
the  young  actress  if  she  was  not  conscious  of  the 
electricity  of  love  ;  finally  putting  the  question  : 
"  Do  you  not  love  me  a  little  ?  "  George  assures 
the  chief  of  the  State  that  she  loves  him  not  a 
little,  but  that  his  role  in  life  is  so  large  that  she 
can  only  count  for  a  small  item  in  its  evolution, 
and  that  although  he  is  First  Consul,  she  cannot 
allow  him  to  trifle  with  her.  She  reminds  him 
that  they  are  playing  Cinna  on  the  next  day,  and 
that  consequently  she  must  be  home  betimes 
in  order  to  get  a  full  night's  rest.  Bonaparte 
reluctantly  consents  to  her  departure  before  (as 
he  says)  she  has  given  him  a  proof  of  her  willing- 
ness to  be  his  friend,  and  insists  that,  Cinna 
over,  his  carriage  shall  take  her  back  to  Saint- 
Cloud,  when  he  will  expect  her  to  sacrifice  to 
Venus. 

"  He  dried  my  tears,"  says  Georgina,  who 
promised  to  keep  the  appointment  for  the  next 
day  and  again  returned  home. 

Cinna  was  duly  acted  on  the  succeeding  night, 
and  Bonaparte  was  present.     At  the  rendering  of 


94  MADEMOISELLE  GEORGE 

the  famous  line,  declaimed  by  ^Emilia,  the  part 
taken  by  Mademoiselle  George  : 

"  I  have  seduced  Cinna  and  can  seduce  others," 

the  actress  came  in  for  some  enthusiastic  applause, 
at  which,  she  says,  she  became  purple,  fearing 
that  the  Consul  might  accuse  her  of  having 
been  indiscreet.  He  was,  on  the  contrary,  very 
kind  when  they  met  at  Saint-Cloud,  where  Bona- 
parte kept  her  till  seven  in  the  morning,  himself 
acting  as  her  servant  when  it  was  time  for  the 
actress  to  go — even  to  the  extent  of  helping  to 
rearrange  the  bed  in  which  they  had  lain.  The 
lady  did  not  see  her  lover  for  some  days,  and  then 
they  met  by  arrangement  in  the  woods  of  Saint- 
Cloud,  when  Bonaparte  complimented  her  on 
looking  so  well  by  daylight,  at  the  same  time  con- 
fessing naively  enough  that  so  many  women  had 
deceived  him  by  candle-light.  For  a  considerable 
period,  the  actress  deserted  her  Prince  for  the 
First  Consul,  and  it  does  not  appear  that  the 
former  became  disconsolate,  for  during  the  first 
fortnight  of  their  liaison  he  made  no  particular 
inquiries  about  his  fair  Georgina.  In  the  honey- 
moon of  their  connection,  Bonaparte,  the  actress 
tells,  showed  the  greatest  delicacy  in  his  dealings 
with  her.  He  was  at  once  "violent  and  tender" 
— to  quote  the  hetaira — never  omitted  to  make 
their  bed  in  the  morning,  helping  her  even  with 
her  toilet,  putting  on  her  shoes,  and  "as  I 
wore    silver    garters    which    buckled    and    were 


"TALLEYRAND,  TRIPOTIER  "         95 

difficult  to  fix  on,  he  had  special  garters  ordered 
for  me — of  the  elastic  style." 

About  this  time,  too,  the  ex-Bishop  of  Autun, 
Monsieur  de  Talleyrand,  began  to  be  somewhat 
troublesome  to  her,  Mademoiselle  George  tells  us, 
and  used  to  advise  her  to  receive  twice  a  week 
a  la  grande  mondaine.  The  actress  assured  her 
diplomatic  mentor  that  she  was  quite  satisfied 
with  the  society  of  artists  and  had  no  ambition 
to  shine  in  a  circle  so  much  above  her  own. 
Monsieur  de  Talleyrand,  according  to  Georgina, 
was  a  meddlesome  person  {tripotier),  and  it  was 
very  hard  to  penetrate  his  motives,  which,  in  this 
case,  probably  aimed  at  nothing  higher  than 
espionage  upon  the  First  Consul,  the  diplomatist 
being  willing  to  allow  the  actress  a  small  social 
role  in  return  for  inside  information.  Georgina, 
who  appears  to  have  been  sincerely  attached  to 
Bonaparte  to  the  very  end  of  her  days,  soon 
acquainted  her  lover  with  his  Minister's  advances, 
and  the  First  Consul  was  puzzled. 

"  What  is  that  viper  Talleyrand  up  to  now  ?  " 
he  wonders.  "  He  wants  everyone  to  be  as 
crooked  as  he  is  himself,  and  likes  to  make 
mischief  everywhere.  You  are  quite  right  to 
have  nothing  to  do  with  society." 

Bonaparte  then  criticises  some  role  of  hers 
in  which  she  plays  her  part  without  passion, 
and  advises  her,  if  she  wants  to  learn  what  the 
sentiments  of  a  mother  are  like,  to  become  one. 
The  actress  tells  us,  too,  that  Bonaparte  once  sent 
her  to  a  sage-femme  in  the  Faubourg  in  order  to  ^ 


96  MADEMOISELLE  GEORGE 

//  learn  from  that  worthy  some  of  the  secrets  of 
maternity  !  A  few  days  before  his  departure  for 
the  new  camp  at  Boulogne,  they  spend  a  night 
together,  playing  like  two  children  on  the  hearth- 
rug before  the  fire.  Bonaparte  tells  the  actress 
of  his  approaching  departure,  and  fearing  that 
she  may  want  for  money  during  his  absence, 
stuffs  several  handfuls  of  bank-notes  down  her 
corsage^  the  amount,  says  the  actress,  being  for 
£1600.  On  his  return  from  Boulogne  she  visits 
him  at  the  Tuileries,  where  the  Consul  has  a 
private  apartment  at  the  top  of  the  Palace, 
looking  out  over  the  great  city.  On  making  her 
way  up  to  this  cabinet  particulier,  Georgina  drops 
an  overshoe  and  sends  Constant  to  fetch  it, 
which  he  does.  The  Consul  appears  and  is  as 
kind  as  ever,  nor  does  he  fail,  says  the  actress,  to 
help  her  to  undress  and  to  dress  again,  acting  with 
his  natural  sense  of  order,  like  a  trained  femme 
de  chamhre. 

It  was  during  one  of  the  many  visits  of  this 
actress  to  the  First  Consul  that  occurred  the 
famous  scene  in  which  Madame  de  Remusat 
shows  how  jealous  of  her  great  husband  Josephine 
could  be  at  times.  On  one  occasion — well  after 
midnight — Madame  Bonaparte,  strong  with  an 
intuition  that  the  First  Consul  was  not  quite 
alone  in  his  small  apartment  on  the  floor  above, 
aroused  Madame  de  Remusat,  her  lady-of -honour, 
and  with  a  lighted  candle,  the  two  women  picked 
their  way  up  the  private  staircase,  Madame  de 
Remusat  thoroughly  ashamed,   she  tells,  of  the 


ADVICE  FROM  MURAT  97 

role  which  she  was  forced  to  play.  As  the  pair 
crept  up  the  stairs,  a  slight  movement  was  heard, 
and  Josephine,  seized  with  sudden  fright,  declares 
that  it  must  be  Roustan,  the  mameluke,  a  monster, 
she  says,  who  is  capable  of  killing  them  both  at 
sight.  This  warning  is  quite  enough  for  Madame 
de  Remusat,  who  turns  about  without  further 
parley,  escaping  back  to  their  quarters ;  her 
mistress  soon  follows,  and  both  women  burst  out 
laughing  at  their  own  discomfiture. 

Shortly  before  the  establishment  of  the  Empire, 
Mademoiselle  had  to  complain  of  the  inattention 
of  her  great  lover  wlio,  during  one  long  fortnight, 
did  not  summon  her  to  his  Palace.  Georgina 
thought  that  the  liaison  was  drawing  to  its  in- 
evitable end,  and  on  visiting  the  theatre  on  the 
same  occasion  as  Bonaparte,  when  she  occupied 
the  box  opposite  his,  affected  not  to  be  aware  of 
his  presence.  Murat,  acting  by  instruction,  we 
may  imagine,  paid  her  a  visit  during  the  last  act, 
and  taking  advantage  of  her  offer  of  a  seat  in  her 
carriage,  advised  the  actress,  on  the  homeward 
journey,  to  call  upon  the  First  Consul  as  he  liad 
asked  her  to  do.  Georgina  visits  her  patron, 
accordingly,  and  learns  from  his  lips  that  he  cannot 
see  her  for  some  time,  but  that  he  will  always 
look  after  her  interests.  Talma  assured  her,  on 
the  day  after  this  visit,  that  the  Consul  was  to 
change  his  exalted  rank  for  a  still  loftier  one,  and 
that  it  was  reasonable  policy  on  the  part  of  the 
Emperor-elect  to  use  circumspection ;  besides, 
he  added,  Bonaparte  was  not  the  man  to  allow 


98  MADEMOISELLE  GEORGE 

his  love  affairs  to  spoil  his  real  role  in  the 
world. 

A  few  months  afterwards  Georgina,  with  her 
somewhat  commonplace  family,  was  an  eye-witness 
of  the  Imperial  procession  to  Notre  Dame,  2nd 
December  1804.  Cinna  was  to  be  staged  by 
Imperial  command,  within  ten  days  of  the  Corona- 
tion ;  Georgina  played  her  usual  part  of  Emilia,  and 
with  great  success.  Not  till  five  weeks  had  passed, 
however,  was  the  actress  to  meet  the  Emperor, 
who  received  her  with  the  same  unaffected  kindli- 
ness as  in  the  old  Consular  days.  Poor  Georgina, 
unused  to  courts  and  with  much  of  the  naivete  of 
the  bourgeoisie  in  her  conceptions  of  what  was 
proper  form,  attempted  a  courtly  role  which  did 
not  please  the  master. 

"  Stilted  manners  do  not  suit  you,  Georgina," 
said  the  simple  soldier.  "  Be  as  you  used  to  be — 
unaffected  and  frank." 

For  all  his  studied  plainness,  the  actress  found, 
nevertheless,  that  the  Emperor  had  displaced  the 
Citoyen  Consul,  that  the  new  style  of  drama 
seemed  to  her,  she  says,  to  be  acted  on  a  higher 
and  more  imposing  plane,  and  Georgina  quickly 
realised  that  she  could  never  find  happiness  in 
such  surroundings.  Madame  Duchatel,  a  lady- 
of-honour,  in  any  case,  soon  attracted  the 
Emperor's  notice  and  Mademoiselle  George  only 
met  her  old  lover  at  very  rare  intervals  thereafter. 
Her  relations  with  Napoleon  lasted  about  two 
years  in  all,  and  it  is  fairly  well  established  that 
the  Corsican  divided  the  favours  of  the  actress 


NAPOLEON  AND  WOMEN  99 

with  a  considerable  number  of  flaneurs  of  note 
in  Paris.  In  all  probability  this  fact  revealed 
itself  to  the  First  Consul  only  after  a  lengthy 
acquaintance  with  Georgina,  and  accounted  for 
the  sudden  enough  rupture  of  the  alliance. 

Frenchmen  as  a  rule  are  most  hypercritical 
of  each  other  in  regard  to  what  they  call  bonnes 
fortunes,  and  Voltaire  has  told  us  that  they  do 
not  easily  forgive  any  man  his  success  among 
womankind.  Accordingly,  we  may  well  believe 
that  the  young  Conqueror  of  Italy  soon  became 
an  object  of  the  sarcasms  of  ordinary  men,  and 
more  particularly  on  account  of  the  fact  that 
in  the  Consular  period  he  was  unusually  thin 
and  weakly-looking,  while  his  height — actually 
five  feet  six  and  three-quarter  inches,  in  English 
measurement,  or  about  five  feet  three  inches 
according  to  French  standards — was  poor  among 
the  existing  race  of  Frenchmen,  who  were  then  of 
lofty  stature,  like  their  Gallic  ancestors,  and  whose 
subsequent  decrease  in  stature  Avas  due,  in  a  large 
part,  to  the  ravages  caused  by  the  Imperial  wars 
among  the  manhood  of  France.  In  a  capital 
which  in  those  days — if  we  are  to  trust  the  writers 
— had  raised  cuckoldry  to  the  proportions  of  a 
social  art,  we  may  be  certain  that  the  mistress  of 
so  great  a  man  could  not  escape  the  aggressive 
attentions  of  men  whose  existence  depended  so 
largely  on  new  sensations.  It  was  among  this 
peculiar  race  of  beings  that  Napoleon  earned  the 
reputation  of  being  a  niais — where  women  were 
concerned. 


100  MADEMOISELT.E  GEORGE 

The  Emperor,  it  would  seem,  objected  in  Made- 
moiselle George  to  two  characteristics  which,  he 
very  correctly  said,  showed  that  she  came  of  a 
"  race  grossiere,^^  or  common  race — namely,  her 
large  hands  and  feet,  and  only  overlooked  these 
defects  in  consideration  of  other  first-class  quali- 
fications which  she  possessed  for  the  role  of 
hetaira.  During  their  association  the  soldier  gave 
his  mistress  many  thousands  of  pounds,  and  even 
several  years  after  the  rupture,  sent  her  a  present 
of  £400  on  his  name-day.  The  actress  admits 
that  he  always  paid  her  himself,  sparing  her  the 
ordeal  of  calling  on  his  banker,  a  fact  which 
showed  that  Bonaparte  possessed  better  taste  in 
such  matters  than  the  late  Marquis  of  Steyne. 
Although,  in  1808,  Georgina  deserted  Paris  for 
Moscow,  under  circumstances  which  she  recounts 
herself.  Napoleon  had  her  reinstated  at  the 
Comedie  Franc/aise  in  1813,  and  even  had  her  paid 
the  salary  she  had  forfeited  over  a  jDcriod  of  five 
years. 

During  the  Hundred  Days,  Georgina  wrote  to 
her  old  lover,  offering  to  hand  over  to  him  certain 
letters  which  incriminated  Fouche,  and  Napoleon 
sent  a  confidential  man  to  fetch  them,  asking  him 
on  his  return  if  the  actress  had  complained  about 
the  state  of  her  affairs.  Georgina  had  not  men- 
tioned that  she  was  in  poor  circumstances. 
Nevertheless  the  Emperor  sent  her  an  order  for 
£800  on  his  privy  purse.  To  the  very  end  the 
actress  spoke  well  of  the  Corsican,  but  not  as  a 
woman  talks  of  an  old  and  favoured  lover  ;  rather 


,-«"• 

^ 


MADHMOISKLLB   GEORGE 
After  till  ciii<riiviii_:< 


"  L'HOMME  HVIMENSE  "  101 

as  a  favourite  official  might  speak  of  a  departed 
sovereign.  She  admitted  that  Napoleon  saw  in 
herself  only  the  beautiful  animal,  and  forgot  her 
once  she  passed  from  his  society.  On  her  own 
side,  she  saw  nothing  in  the  Corsican  but  the  demi- 
god, and  the  incarnate  spirit  of  triumph  ;  least  of 
all,  the  lover  or  the  lovable.  An  English  writer, 
treating  of  her  relations  with  and  her  regard  for 
Napoleon,  expresses  himself  as  follows  : — 

"Up  to  the  last  George  could  never  speak  of 
Napoleon  without  a  break  in  her  voice — a  tlirill 
of  genuine  emotion.  It  was  not  her  lover  she  re- 
called, but  the  great  Emperor — Vhomme  immense, 
as  she  called  him,  with  real  art.  She  spoke  of 
him  with  timid  reverence,  and  seemed  to  have 
forgotten  that  he  had  once  thought  her  beautiful, 
and  had  told  her  so.  This  reticence  was  not  the 
tardy  modesty  of  old  age,  for  she  spoke  freely  of 
her  other  lovers — ^^vhat  a  crowd  of  celebrities  ! 
Talleyrand,  Murat,  Ouvrard,  liUcien  Bonaparte, 
King  Jerome,  the  Emperor  Alexander  I.,  Prince 
Sapieha,  Count  Benckendorff,  Prince  Demidoff, 
Coster  de  Saint-Victor,  Jules  Janin,  Alexandre 
Dumas,  Tom  Harel,  and  countless  others.  It 
was  rather  that  she  saw  in  him,  not  the  part  he 
had  played  to  her,  but  the  part  he  had  played  to 
France  ;  like  those  nymphs  of  old  who,  honoured 
by  the  embraces  of  a  god,  were  so  dazzled  by  the 
blinding  light  of  his  glory  that  they  never  even 
beheld  his  face." 

George  has  earned  the  reputation  of  having 
once  given  a  favoured  lover  a  rendezvous  which 


102  MADEMOISELLE  GEORGE 

proved  the  costliest  on  record.  Here  are  the 
facts  as  retailed  by  one  of  the  chroniclers  : 

"  Among  the  many  celebrities  on  whom  her 
charms  made  an  impression  was  Ouvrard,  the 
great  Imperial  financier  and  army  contractor. 
Already  mider  the  Directory,  Ouvrard's  fetes  at  Le 
Raincy  and  then  at  Rueil,  were  the  talk  of  Paris. 
Twice  a  week  the  coriJS  de  ballet  of  the  Opera  were 
entertained ;  an  enormous  white  marble  bath 
served  for  their  ablutions,  and  each  lady  left  with 
a  present  of  fifty  louis.  George  once  cost  him — 
as  he  himself  related — £84,000  for  a  single  visit. 
Ouvrard  had  invited  her  to  sup  at  Rueil,  but  that 
very  same  evening  Bonaparte  had  given  her  a 
rendezvous  at  Saint-Cloud,  and  she  informed  the 
financier  that  she  would  have  to  postpone  her  visit. 
Ouvrard  was  furious,  and  vowed  he  would  not  yield 
to  a  shrimp  like  Bonaparte,  whom  he  had  known 
as  a  poor  Captain  of  Artillery,  and  who  had  been 
only  too  happy  to  be  invited  to  his  house  in  the 
early  days  of  the  Directory.  So  he  insisted  upon 
George  coming  to  Rueil,  adding  as  a  postscript 
that  she  would  '  find  £4000  in  the  folds  of  her 
napkin  '  at  supper.  She  could  not  refuse  this. 
The  Consul  would  have  to  wait.  So,  pleading  a 
sudden  indisposition  she  was  rapidly  borne  to 
Rueil  in  one  of  Ouvrard's  carriages.  The  Emperor 
had  his  spies  and  heard  of  it.  Ouvrard  received 
a  summons  to  appear  forthwith  at  the  Tuileries. 
Here  he  was  promptly  ushered  into  the  Chief's 
presence. 

*'  '  Monsieur,  how  much  did  you  make  out  of 


AN  ARMY  CONTRACT  103 

your  contract  for  the  army  at  the  beginning  of 
the  year  ?  '  Bonaparte  demanded. 

"  The  financier,  knowing  it  was  useless  to  lie, 
repUed  :    '  £160,000,  Sire.' 

"  '  Then,  sir,  you  made  too  much ;  you  will 
immediately  pay  £80,000  back  into  the  Treasury. 
Bonjour,  Monsieur  !  '  " 


CHAPTER  VI 
NAPOLEON   AND   WEIMAR 


The  Cult  of  Napoleon — Goethe  on  the  Corsican — The 
Congress  of  Erfurt — Honoiiring  the  Sage — Lannes, 
Maret  and  Goethe — Presentatio7i  to  the  Emperor — 
Ecce  Homo  ! — The  Emperor  and  Werther — Politics 
and  Fate — Napoleon  s  Manoeuvre — Midler  on  the 
Interview — Talleyrand' s  Version  of  the  Meeting — 
Preparations  for  Erfurt — An  Imperial  Opinion  upon 
Athalie — Goethe  and  Dedication — Talleyrand  07i 
Napoleon's  Learning — Johann  von  Midler — The 
Emperor  on  Christianity — Tragedy,  the  School  of 
Kings — Wieland  is  presented — Les  genres  tranches 
— History  a?id  Romance —  Wieland  at  the  Palace — 
Tacitus  and  the  Annals — Napoleon  s  Opinion — Wie- 
land's  Eloquence — The  Great  Painter  of  Antiquity 
— Livy  and  Tacitus — The  World's  Happiest  Age? 


THOSE  who  hold  that  the  cult  of 
Napoleon  is  a  certain  indication  of  a 
shallow  mind — and  their  number  grows — 
must  find  themselves  in  some  difficulty 
when  they  attempt  to  provide  us  with  an  apology 
for  Goethe's  ecstatic  worship  of  the  world's  fore- 
most exponent  of  the  strenuous  life. 

"  Napoleon,"  said  the  German,  "  always  lived 
in  the  ideal  and  nevertheless  was  not  conscious  of 
the  fact ;  he  denied  the  ideal  and  refused  to  admit 
its  reality,  while  all  the  time  he  sought  with  ardour 
to  realise  it.  His  reason,  so  lucid  and  incorrupt- 
ible, could  not,  however,  perpetually  support  the 
essential  contradiction  involved,  and  his  words 
are  often  of  the  highest  import,  as  for  example, 
when  he  describes  an  idea  as  a  child  of  Reason  ; 
or  when  he  declares  that  each  idea  gives  birth  to 
another  and  that  the  influence  of  a  fruitful  idea 
can  never  die.  Therefore,  he  declares,  he  himself 
must  live,  since  he  has  given  a  new  impulse 
and  a  new^  direction  to  the  march  of  human 
progress." 

When  the  entire  Continent  was  organising  itself 
for  the  destruction  of  the  mighty  disturber  of  the 
peace  of  Europe,  Goethe  alone,  of  all  the  great 
literary  spirits  of  Germany,  openly  expressed  his 
grief  that  France,  which  he  looked  upon  as  his 
"  second  Fatherland,"  was  about  to  be  invaded 
by  the  gathering  coalitions,  and  privately  made 
no  pretence  at  disguising  his  opinion  that  with  the 
passing  of  Napoleon  must  also  perish  the  active 
spirit  of  Liberty  for  some  generations  to  come. 

io6 


HERE  ECKERMANN  107 

His  faithful  house-friends,  Miiller,  the  Chancellor, 
and  Eckermann,  the  author,  have  also  chronicled 
on  many  a  page  his  veneration  for  the  man  of 
action.  Eckermann  on  one  occasion  lamented 
that  he  had  never  seen  Napoleon  in  person,  and 
Goethe  replied  by  telling  the  Schriftsteller  that 
he  had  indeed  missed  a  sight  worth  seeing. 

"  Did  he  look  like  something  ?  "  inquires  the 
simple  Eckermann,  entirely  in  the  style  of  the 
conversationists  of  Ollendorf's  German  Grammar. 

"  He  was  something,"  replies  Goethe  pontific- 
ally,  "  and  looked  what  he  was." 

"  Napoleon  was  the  man  !  "  declares  the 
German  Sage  another  day.  Das  war  ein  Kerl  — 
always  enlightened,  always  clear  and  decided  and 
endowed  at  every  hour  with  sufficient  energy  to 
carry  into  effect  whatever  he  considered  advan- 
tageous and  necessary.  His  life  was  the  stride  of 
a  demi-god  from  battle  to  battle  and  from  victory 
to  victory.  It  might  well  be  said  of  him  that  he 
was  found  in  a  state  of  continual  enlightenment. 
On  this  account  his  destiny  was  more  brilliant 
than  any  the  world  had  seen  before  him,  or  perhaps 
will  ever  see  after  him." 

At  this  point  in  the  conversation,  Eckermann 
chronicles,  Goethe  poured  him  out  a  glass  of 
wine,  inviting  him  to  help  himself  at  the  table; 
encouraged  by  which  hospitality  he  fires  off  the 
following  typical  German  sentiment  at  the  poet : 

"  Still  it  appears  to  me  that  Napoleon  was 
especially  in  that  state  of  continued  enlighten- 
ment when  he  was  young,  and  his  powers  were 


1 


r- 


108  NAPOLEON  AND  WEIMAR 

yet  on  the  increase — ^when,  indeed,  we  see  at  his 
side  divine  protection  and  a  constant  fortune. 
In  later  years,  on  the  contrary,  this  enUghten- 
ment  appears  to  have  forsaken  him,  as  well  as  his 
fortune  and  his  good  star." 

''Que  voulez-vous ?  ^^  returns  Goethe,  bursting 
into  exotic  French,  "  I  did  not  write  my  Love- 
songs  or  my  Werther  a  second  time,"  and  goes  on 
ponderously  to  explain  in  effect  to  the  voracious 
Eckermann  that  Napoleon  was  as  great  as  he 
was  simply  because  he  was  not  less  great  than 
he  might  have  been.  And  Eckermann  swallows 
this  pearl  of  wisdom,  but  wisely  goes  on  cutting 
BrotschniUen,  like  Werther' s  lady,  and  does  not 
contradict. 

"  Napoleon,"  Goethe  declares  on  another 
occasion,  "  had  studied  my  Werther  as  a  criminal 
judge  studies  his  documents  and  in  this  spirit  he 
discussed  it  with  me" — a  view  which  is  hardly 
supported  by  extant  records  of  the  famous  con- 
versation which  took  place  on  2nd  October  1808 
at  Erfurt,  whither,  it  will  be  remembered.  Napoleon 
summoned  a  Congress  of  celebrities  of  all  sorts, 
less  with  the  object  of  really  dealing  with  the 
political  situation,  we  may  suppose,  than  with 
the  deliberate  intention  of  summarising  for 
posterity,  in  one  impressive  pageant,  the  signific- 
ance of  his  mighty  march  across  the  field  of  human 
action. 

Among  the  crowd  of  royal  and  princely  person- 
ages whose  presence  at  Erfurt  was  chronicled  by 
the  Moniteur,  especial  attention  was  given  to  the 


ECCE  HOMO  !  109 

name  of  Monsieur  de  Goethe,  who  is  paragraphed 
more  generously  than  many  a  minor  sovereign. 

"  The  Court  of  Weimar  has  brought  us  the  cele- 
brated Goethe,"  writes  the  Paris  paper's  special 
correspondent.  "  A  minister  of  the  Duke  of 
Weimar,  this  author  is  still  young,  although  his 
reputation  is  of  ancient  date.  He  is  an  assiduous 
attendant  at  the  theatre,  where  he  has  had  an 
opportunity  of  seeing  our  actors  in  Andrornache, 
Britannicus  and  Zaire ^ 

Marshal  Lannes  had  stayed  at  Goethe's  house 
in  1806  and  had  conceived  a  great  admiration  for 
the  German.  On  the  latter' s  arrival  at  Erfurt,  the 
famous  soldier  had  hastened  to  pay  his  respects, 
and  they  subsequently  saw  much  of  each  other. 
Goethe  also  made  the  acquaintance  of  the  Minister 
Maret,  on  whom  the  German  poet  produced  so 
profound  an  impression  that  he  spoke  of  it  to 
Napoleon.  Goethe  was  accordingly  summoned 
to  the  presence  of  the  Emperor  and  made  his 
appearance  at  the  Imperial  residence  where,  in  an 
ante-chamber,  he  was  presented  to  both  Savary 
and  Talleyrand.  After  some  delay,  the  poet 
entered  the  presence.  Napoleon  was  at  breakfast, 
Talleyrand  standing  at  his  right  and  Daru  to  the 
left. 

"  The  Emperor  makes  me  a  sign  to  approach, 
and  I  advance  to  within  a  suitable  distance,"  the 
poet  tells  us,  "  when  Napoleon,  having  looked  at 
me  fixedly  for  a  few  moments,  says,  '  You  are  a 
man,' — whereupon  I  bow." 

Goethe,  it  is  certain,  was  very  proud  of  this 


110  NAPOLEON  AND  WEIMAR 

peculiar  expression  of  Napoleon's  praise.  A 
certain  Graf  von  Reinhardt  wrote  to  him  in 
November  of  the  same  year,  saying  that  people 
were  discussing  the  phrase  used  by  the  Emperor, 
adding  :  "I  can  well  believe  Napoleon  capable 
of  feeling  and  speaking  as  he  did."  Goethe 
replies  to  this  letter  in  December,  commenting 
on  the  Emperor's  "  wunderbares  Wort,"  which 
he  facetiously  compares  with  the  world-historic 
Ecce  Homo! — adding  that  he  is  pleased  with  the 
Conqueror's  good  opinion  of  him. 

Having  inquired  as  to  his  age  and  assured  him 
that  he   carried  his   sixty  years  well.   Napoleon 
turns  the  conversation  to  the  subject  of  Werther, 
and  cites  a  certain  passage,  asking  the  poet  why 
i   he  had  worked  out  an  idea  which  was  opposed 
'  to  truth  and  nature.     After  listening  to  a  lengthy 
disquisition  as  to  this  detail,  Goethe  admits  that 
the  Emperor  is  perfectly  right  and  that  the  passage 
is    inconsistent    with    truth.     Napoleon    declares 
j  that  the  chief  fault  of  the  French  Theatre  is  that 
ij  it  attaches  no  value  to  the  necessity  of  keeping 
close  to  natui'e  and  truth.     Voltaire's  Mahomet  he 
declares  to  be  "a  bad   piece,"  because  truth  is 
sacrificed  to  the  spectacular  and  to  artifice,  after 
which  the  Emperor  goes  into  the  minutest  details, 
showing  how  a  world-conqueror  can  only  be  re- 
presented faithfully  as  long  as  his  role  is  played 
on  a  lofty  and  grandiose  plane.     In  expatiating 
on  this  idea,  he  expressed  his  disapproval  of  all 
dramatic  work  in  which  Fate  plays  a  capital  role  : 
"  Such  works,"   he  declared,   "  belong  to   the 


DISPUTED  PASSAGES  111 

obscure  ages.     And  besides — ^\vhat  is  meant  by 
Fate  ?     Politics  is  Fate — la  politique  est  lafatalite.'' 

Here  Napoleon  rose  from  the  table  and 
approached  the  poet. 

"  By  a  sort  of  manoeiwre,''  says  Goethe,  mth 
a  typically  German  lack  of  humour,  "  Napoleon         j 
separated  me  from  the  others  and,  turning  his 
back  on  the  company,  began  to  question  me  on 
matters  of  personal  interest  to  myself." 

And  so  the  great  soldier,  who  had  shown  the 
quality  of  his  manoeuvres  at  the  little  affairs  of 
Austerlitz  and  Jena,  having  given  the  man  of 
Letters  a  kind  of  private  show  of  his  art,  proceeds 
after  his  fashion  to  inquire  if  Goethe  is  married 
and  what  are  his  exact  relations  with  the  Grand- 
Ducal  house  of  Weimar. 

Goethe,  it  may  be  observed,  would  never  allow 
himself  to  be  drawn  into  indicating  the  particular 
passage  in  Werther  to  which  the  Corsican  had  taken 
exception,  as  stated  above,  and  to  authorities 
who  questioned  him  on  the  subject  he  was  wont 
to  return  the  tactful  enough  suggestion  that  as 
literary  men,  they  were  surely  equal  to  the  task  of 
locating  it.  The  Chancellor  Mliller  claimed,  how- 
ever, to  be  in  a  position  to  solve  a  problem  w^hich, 
in  Germany  at  least,  has  proved  itself  fruitful 
of  endless  and,  indeed,  purposeless  discussion. 
Napoleon,  according  to  Miiller,  assured  Goethe 
that  he  had  read  Werther  seven  times,  and  always 
with  renewed  pleasure.  In  order  to  confirm  his 
words,  he  quoted  abundantly  and  finished  by 
blaming  the  poet  for  having  made  disappointed 


112  NAPOLEON  AND  WEIMAR 

ambition,  equally  with  his  hopeless  love  for 
Charlotte,  the  motive  which  drove  Werther  to 
suicide. 

"  That,"  says  the  Emperor,  "  is  not  true  to 
nature,  and  you  have  weakened  for  the  reader 
the  idea  which  he  had  formed  of  Werther's  great 
love  for  Charlotte." 

There  is  no  finality  about  this  solution  given 
by  the  Chancellor,  it  may  be  said. 

Talleyrand,  in  his  Memoirs,  gives  another 
version  of  the  interview  at  Erfurt,  relating  how 
Napoleon  assured  the  officials  that  it  was  his 
intention  to  astonish  Germany  with  his  Imperial 
magnificence.  And  while  discussing  his  pro- 
jected journey  to  Erfurt,  he  summoned  M.  Dazin- 
court,  then  director  of  his  Imperial  theatre, 
when  the  following  dialogue  took  place  : — 

"  I  want  the  Comedie  Fran9aise  to  come  to 
Erfurt  with  me,"  says  the  Emperor. 

"  For  comedies  or  tragedies  ?  "  inquires 
Dazincourt  winningly. 

"  For  tragedies,  of  course,"  replies  Napoleon 
testily.  "  Our  comedies  would  be  no  good  in 
Germany,  where  the  French  genius  is  not  under- 
stood." 

"  Of  course  your  Majesty  will  want  everything 
on  a  very  grand  scale  ?  "  suggests  the  director. 
"  We  could,  for  instance,  give  Athalie,  Sire  !  " 

"  A  fig  for  your  Athalie !  "  cries  Napoleon 
irritably.  "  You  certainly,  Dazincourt,  do  not 
understand  a  man  like  myself.  Do  you  think 
I  am  going  to  Erfurt  to  suggest  the  role  of  a 


CINNA'S  APOLOGIA  113 

Joash  to  these  Germans  ?  Athalie !  "What  a 
horrible  idea  !  But  enough — tell  your  best  tragic 
actors  to  prepare  for  a  journey  to  Erfurt.  Athalie^ 
indeed !  How  stupid  these  old  fogies  are !  " 
he  adds,  as  Dazincourt  bows  himself  out.  "  But 
it  is  really  my  o^vn  fault — -I  should  not  consult 
anyone.  If  he  had  even  said  Cinna,  which  is  a 
truly  good  piece  !  "  And  then  he  turns  to 
Monsieur  de  Remusat,  who  is  present,  saying  : 

"  I  was  never  much  good  at  recitation  ;  but 
tell  me,  Remusat,  does  not  the  following  passage 
occur  in  Cinna  ? 

"  '  Tous  ces  crimes  d'Etat  qu'on  fait  pour  la  couronne 
Le  ciel  nous  en  absout,  alors  qu'il  nous  la  donne  ? ' 

How  do  the  next  lines  go  ?  Get  a  Corneille, 
Remusat." 

"  Inutile,  Sire,'^  replies  Remusat ;  "  I  remember 
them,"  and  goes  on,  French-fashion,  to  declaim  : 

"  Et  dans  le  rang  sacre  ou  sa  faveur  I'a  mis, 
Le  passe  devient  juste  et  I'avenir  permis. 
Qui  peut  y  parvenir,  ne  peut  etre  coupable ; 
Quoi  qu'il  ait  fait,  ou  fasse,  il  est  inviolable." 

"  Splendid  !  "  cries  the  Emperor,  with  en- 
thusiasm ;  "  more  particularly  for  those  hard- 
headed  Germans,  who  never  change  their  ideas, 
and  who  still  blether  about  the  death  of  the  Due 
d'Enghien  :  we  must  broaden  their  moral  views, 
and  the  sentiments  of  Corneille  are  the  proper 
sentiments  for  men  with  melancholy  ideas,  like 
the  Germans.     We  must  have  Cinna  for  the  first 


114  NAPOLEON  AND  WEIMAR 

day,  and  you,  Remusat,  can  look  up  tragedies  for 
the  other  days.  Of  course,  you  will  let  me  know 
before  deciding  on  anything." 

According  to  Talleyrand,  in  his  account  of 
Goethe's  interview,  there  is  no  mention  of  the 
phrase  "  voiis  etes  un  homme!  "  ;  and,  by  the  same 
authority,  Goethe  does  not  allow  Napoleon  to 
overlook  the  claims  to  high  literary  rank  of 
Lessing,  Schiller,  Wieland.  The  Emperor  ex- 
presses a  wish  to  meet  the  last-named,  and  advises 
the  poet  to  study  the  plays  which  are  being  acted. 
Goethe  tactfully  evades  the  suggestion  that  he  is 
the  man  to  chronicle  and  describe  for  posterity 
the  Congress  of  Erfurt,  as  the  Corsican  suggests, 
and  declines  to  dedicate  anything  to  the  Emperor 
of  Russia  on  the  ground  that  when  he  first 
decided  to  devote  himself  to  Letters,  he  also 
took  the  resolution  never  to  dedicate  a  work 
to  anyone,  so  as  not  to  have  to  regret  it,  as  he 
explained. 

"  The  great  writers  of  the  age  of  Louis  XIV. 
were  not  hke  that,"  objects  the  Emperor  rather 
coldly. 

"  True,"  replies  Goethe,  "  but  it  is  not  so 
very  certain  that  they  never  regretted  their 
dedications."     Which  reply  settles  the  matter. 

On  Napoleon's  making  an  inquiry  about 
Kotzebue,  the  poet  appeals  for  mercy  for  that 
unfortunate  pamphleteer  and  patriot.  The 
Emperor  assures  his  visitor  that  he  has  no 
sympathy  with  men  like  Kotzebue.  Goethe  seeks 
to  move  him. 


A  CAPTIOUS  CRITIC  115 

"Adieu,  Monsieur  Goet'!"  says  the  Corsican 
curtly,  and  draws  the  interview  to  a  close. 

The  selection  of  the  tragedies  presented  at 
Erfurt  had,  says  Talleyrand,  been  made  with 
great  care  and  much  art.  Each  historical  subject 
was  made  to  point  a  political  moral  that  applied 
to  those  spacious  days.  Thus,  in  Mithri dates, 
the  hatred  of  that  Prince  for  Rome  suggested 
Napoleon's  hatred  of  Britain.  The  ideas  of 
immortality,  of  greatness,  of  destiny,  which  run 
through  Ijohigenia,  served  only  to  emphasise  the 
characteristics  of  the  central  figure  of  the  Con- 
gress. In  Voltaire's  Mahomet,  especial  instruction 
had  been  given  for  the  delivery  of  lines  like  the 
following : — 

"  Qui  I'a  fait  roi  ?    Qui  I'a  couronne  ?    La  Victoire  ! " 

and  : 

"  Au  nom  de  conquerant  et  de  triomphateur, 
II  veut  joindre  le  nom  de  pacificateur." 

Talleyrand,  who  was  a  first-class  hater,  must 
be  held  suspect  in  what  he  says  of  coevals. 
There  is  so  remarkable  a  coincidence,  however, 
between  his  way  of  looking  at  Napoleon  and  that 
of  de  Bourrienne — a  fidelity  of  detail  in  all  matters 
which  present  the  picture  of  the  upstart,  that  we 
cannot  refuse  to  look  at  what  he  has  to  say  of 
Napoleon's  pretensions  to  play  the  role  of  bel 
esprit.  The  Emperor,  says  the  Prince,  in  effect, 
used  to  devote  considerable  time  to  "  working 
up  "  recondite,  or  at  least  learned,  conversational 


4^ 


116  NAPOLEON  AND  WEIMAR 

matter  with  which  he  surprised  his  company,  when, 
the  occasion  being  astutely  chosen,  he  would 
spring  it,  impromptu-fashion,  on  some  unprepared 
unfortunate.  He  never  had  before  him  the  fear 
of  a  positive  contradiction,  since  his  exalted 
position  always  enabled  him  to  choose  the  means 
of  interrupting  a  conscientious  objector  to  his 
opinions,  and  in  foreign  countries,  especially,  it 
was  his  habit  to  discuss  matters  which  possessed 
a  bearing  and  suggestion  altogether  outside  the 
intellectual  range  of  a  military  man. 

Indeed,  adds  Talleyrand,  the  presence  of  a 
Montesquieu  or  a  Voltaire  would  have  had  no 
terrors  for  Napoleon,  whose  self-assurance  arose 
perhaps  from  vanity,  perhaps  from  the  splendour 
of  his  career.  At  Berlin  in  1807,  for  instance,  the 
Prince  tells  us  how  the  victor  of  Friedland  had 
addressed  one  of  those  intellectual  omnivores 
whom  Germany  so  frequently  produces.  His 
name  was  Johann  von  Miiller,  and  among  his 
productions  were  a  few  trifles  like  a  compre- 
hensive Bellum  Cimhricum  and  a  General  History 
of  the  World,  in  twenty-four  tomes.  Napoleon 
requested  him  off-hand  to  fix  the  principal  epochs 
of  human  thought  and  action,  and,  impatient  of 
the  historian's  pause  for  consideration,  set  about 
doing  so  himself.     Says  Talleyrand  : 

"  I  can  still  see  the  astonished  face  of  Professor 
Miiller,  as  Napoleon  went  on  to  show  how  the 
rapid  propagation  and  development  of  Christianity 
had  caused  a  reaction  of  Greek  ideals  against 
those  of  Rome  ;    how  cleverly  Greece  had  adapted 


THE  r6LE  of  tragedy  117 

herself  to  an  intellectual  role  once  her  national 
political  grandeur  had  passed — conquHe  qiCelle 
avail  ejfectuee  en  saisissant  ce  germe  bienfaiteur 
qui  a  eu  tant  d'' influence  sur  Vhumanite  entiere  "  — 
meaning,  of  course,  the  triumph  of  Christianity 
over  Pagan  culture. 

"  Napoleon  must  have  learned  this  last  phrase 
by  heart,''  adds  the  sceptical  Talleyrand,  "  for 
I  heard  him  repeat  it  in  exactly  the  same  words  to 
M.  de  Fontanes  and  also  to  M.  Suard." 

"  Philosophers,"  concluded  Napoleon  to  Johann 
Miiller,  "  exhaust  themselves  in  building  up 
systems  ;  but  they  shall  look  in  vain  for  a  better 
philosophy  than  that  of  Christianity  which  has 
reconciled  man  with  himself  and  his  fellows  and 
guaranteed  order  in  all  the  world."  A  view 
which  few  men  of  good  intent  would  be  found 
to  quarrel  with,  if  only  Christianity  were  what 
Christianity  was  meant  to  be. 
V  Chancellor  von  Miiller — no  relative  of  the  late- 
mentioned — a  kind  of  president  of  the  High  Court 
of  Justice  at  Weimar,  and  a  close  friend  and 
confidant  of  Goethe,  adds  a  few  more  details 
concerning  this  historic  interview. 

"  Tragedy,"  said  the  Emperor,  "  is  the  school 
of  kings  and  nations  ;  it  is  in  some  respects  more 
important  than  history  and  by  far  the  highest 
achievement  of  the  poet.  You,  'Monsieur  Goet', 
ought  to  write  a  Death  of  Ccesai\  but  in  a  more 
grandiose  and  elevated  style  than  that  of 
Voltaire.  Indeed,  such  a  work  might  well  become 
the  central  task  of  your  life.     In  such  a  tragedy 


118  NAPOLEON  AND  WEIMAR 

you  would  have  to  show  the  world  how  Caesar 
could  have  achieved  the  happiness  of  mankind  if 
he  had  only  been  given  the  time  to  execute  his 
mighty  conceptions.  Come  to  Paris,  Monsieur 
Goet'  ;  I  want  you  to  come,  and  there  you  will 
not  fail  to  see  a  vaster  vision  for  your  powers  of 
observation,  besides  finding  limitless  treasure  to 
draw  upon  for  your  poetical  inspirations." 

And  when  the  Sage  had  bowed  himself  out,  the 
Emperor,  Miiller  tells  us,  turned  to  Berthier 
and  Daru  with  the  words :  "  That  is  a  man  !  " 
Goethe  himself  maintained  a  profound  silence 
on  all  the  incidents  of  the  interview,  and  the 
Chancellor  remained  in  doubt  whether  this  was 
owing  to  his  natural  reserve  or  whether  it  was 
inspired  by  a  feeling  of  delicacy  and  propriety, 
born  of  his  perfect  knowledge  of  the  hypercritical 
society  amidst  which  he  lived.  The  invitation 
which  Napoleon  had  given  him  to  visit  Paris 
engaged  Goethe's  consideration  for  a  long  time, 
and  (says  the  Chancellor)  he  asked  many  questions 
about  the  customs  of  Paris,  about  the  arrange- 
ments to  be  made,  and  only  abandoned  the  idea 
on  reflecting  that  so  long  and  tedious  a  journey 
might  prove  too  trying  for  his  advanced  age. 

"  It  was  in  the  very  last  years  of  his  life," 
concludes  the  Chancellor,  "  that  Goethe  gave  me 
the  details  of  his  interview  with  Napoleon,  and 
it  was  not  till  a  few  days  before  his  death  that  I 
was  able  to  induce  him  to  give  me  permission 
to  amplify  the  laconic  fragments  of  his  own 
Annals." 


LES  GENRES  TRANCHlfeS  119 

The  Imperial  cortege  in  due  course  moved  on 
to  Weimar,  where  Miiller  was  able  to  present 
Wieland  to  the  Conqueror.  This  luminary 
occupied  in  those  days  in  Germany  very  much 
the  same  position  that  Voltaire  had  occupied  in 
France  of  his  age,  and,  indeed,  on  his  presentation 
to  the  Emperor,  Napoleon  assured  him  that  he 
was  known  in  Paris  as  the  Voltaire  of  Germany. 

"  Which  of  your  writings  do  you  like  best  ?  " 
was  the  first  question. 

"  Sire,"  replied  the  simple  scholar,  "  I  attach 
no  great  value  to  any  of  my  productions.  I 
wrote  according  to  my  heart." 

''  But,"  persisted  Napoleon,  "there  must  be  one 
particular  work  to  which  you  give  preference  over 
the  rest." 

Wieland  named  his  Agathon  and  Oberon,  where- 
upon Napoleon  went  on  to  make  his  famous  re- 
mark about  genres  tranches— o,  correct  rendering 
of  which  phrase  we  prefer  to  leave  to  the  literary 
connoisseurs.  The  great  soldier  objected,  it  seems, 
to  Shakespeare's  method,  which  "  mixed  tragedy 
with  comedy,  the  impressive  with  the  burlesque," 
and,  turning  to  both  Wieland  and  Goethe,  said  : 

"  I  am  surprised  that  acute  minds  like  yours 
do  not  cultivate  a  style  tranche,  or  exclusive. 
Why,  in  your  Agathon,  Monsieur  Wieland,  do 
you  indulge  in  that  equivocal  tendency  to  mix 
romance  with  history,  and  history  with  romance, 
since  all  work  of  this  kind  tends  to  cause  con- 
fusion in  the  reader's  mind  ?  I  am  aware,"  admits 
the  Emperor  graciously,  "  that  I  am  fighting  against 


120  NAPOLEON  AND  WEIMAR 

great  odds — all  the  more  so  because  my  remarks 
apply  to  Monsieur  Goet'  as  well  as  to  yourself." 

"  Your  Majesty  may  allow  us  to  remark," 
replies  Wieland,  "  that  there  are  very  few  French 
tragedies  that  are  not  a  mixture  of  history  and 
romance.  As  regards  my  own  work,  I  sought  to 
instruct  and  so  I  needed  the  authority  of  history ; 
accordingly,  I  sweetened  the  pill  of  prolix  learn- 
ing by  mixing  stern  reality  with  the  imaginative 
and  the  pleasing.  Men's  ideals  are  sometimes 
better  than  their  actions,  and  romances  which 
describe  good  men  often  describe  them  as  better 
than  they  really  are,  I  think.  Compare,  Sire,  the 
Siecle  de  Louis  XIV.  with  TSUmaque,  in  which 
you  will  find  the  best  lessons  both  for  the  governors 
and  the  governed." 

"  I  find,"  rejoins  Napoleon,  "  that  those  who 
represent  righteous  men  in  fiction  always  end 
by  proving  that  righteousness  is  only  a  chimgera. 
History  indeed  has  suffered  much  in  this  respect 
from  historians  themselves." 

The  conversation  is  interrupted  here  by  M.  de 
Nansouty,  who  announces  the  arrival  of  the  courier 
from  Paris. 

Wieland  himself  relates  how  on  the  occasion  of 
a  great  gala  reception  at  the  Grand-Ducal  palace, 
which  he  had  not  attended.  Napoleon  had  a 
carriage  especially  sent  for  him,  and  the  man  of 
Letters,  without  delaying  to  change  his  ordinary 
attire,  at  once  proceeded  to  the  Palace.  Here  he 
arrived  about  eleven  o'clock  and  was  immediately 
taken  to  the  presence  of  the  Emperor,  who,  in 


TACITUS  ATTACKED—  121 

consideration  of  the  great  author's  seventy-five 
years,  good-naturedly  overlooked  his  skull-cap 
and  slippers.  For  over  an  hour,  Napoleon,  in  the 
presence  of  a  motley  group  of  celebrities,  discussed 
the  ancient  classics  with  the  old  scholar,  paying 
particular  attention  to  Tacitus,  and  in  con- 
nection with  this  academic  rencontre,  it  is  note- 
worthy that  Talleyrand  affects  to  believe  that  the 
Emperor  had  burned  much  midnight  oil  in  prepar- 
ing his  case  against  Wi eland  and  the  Roman. 
Tacitus,  it  may  be  remarked,  is  said  by  properly 
accredited  authorities  to  be  the  first  of  the 
psychologists  of  history  and  a  profound  analyst 
of  ulterior  motives  in  political  action.  Accord- 
ingly, he  found  but  little  honour  with  the  Corsican 
whose  prejudice  favoured  the  unquestioning  spirit 
among  the  critics. 

"  Tacitus,"  he  said,  "  has  taught  me  nothing. 
Can  you  point  out  a  greater  or  a  more  unjust 
detractor  of  humanity  ?  In  the  simplest  actions 
he  finds  criminal  motives.  All  his  emperors  are 
monsters  of  iniquity  inspired  by  different  varieties 
of  evil  genius,  and  they  were  not  at  all  bad  judges 
who  declared  that  the  Annals  are  not  so  much  a 
history  of  Rome  as  an  abstract  of  its  criminal 
records.  Everywhere  one  is  confronted  with 
accusers  and  accused — men  who  commit  suicide 
in  the  bathroom  to  escape  punishment.  Tacitus 
is  always  decrying  the  informers  (delatores),  yet 
where  is  a  greater  scandalmonger  than  himself  ? 
And  the  style — one  long  night  of  obscurity  !  I 
am  no  great  Latinist  myself,  but  the  obscurity 


122  NAPOLEON  AND  WEIMAR 

of  Tacitus  is  quite  obvious  to  me  in  the  ten  or 
'\  twelve  Italian  or  French  translations  which  I 
;  have  read,  and  I  have  come  to  the  conclusion 
/  that  this  lack  of  clearness  in  his  style  arose  from 
sheer  inability  to  see  things  as  they  really  were. 
I  have  heard  him  praised  because  he  has  inspired 
tyrants  with  fear.  He  has  inspired  kings,  in  my 
view,  with  the  fear  of  their  subjects,  and  that  is 
a  bad  thing  for  a  nation.  N'ai-je  pas  raison. 
Monsieur  Wieland  ?  But  really  I  am  monopolis- 
ing you — ^we  have  not  come  here  to  talk  about 
Tacitus."  And,  casting  a  glance  at  the  moving 
scene  before  him,  he  calls  attention  to  the  Emperor 
Alexander  : 

"  See  how  well  he  dances,"  Napoleon  observes, 
and  takes  a  pinch  of  snuff. 

"  I  do  not  know  why  we  are  here,  Sire,"  replies 
the  simple  Wieland,  "  but  I  do  know  that  your 
Majesty  makes  me  at  this  moment  the  happiest 
man  alive." 

"  Well,  then,  answer  me,"  says  Napoleon  kindly. 

"  Sire,"  returns  the  writer,  "  from  the  way  in 
which  your  Majesty  talks,  I  am  led  to  forget  that 
you  are  twice  a  sovereign,  and  only  see  in  you  the 
man  of  Letters.  I  know  that  you  do  not  disdain 
the  title,  for  I  have  not  forgotten  your  pride  in 
being  a  Member  of  the  Institut.  1  will,  therefore, 
answer  the  man  of  Letters,  and  although  I  felt  at 
Erfurt  that  I  defended  myself  but  feebly  against 
your  criticisms,  I  hope  to  make  a  better  defence 
of  Tacitus. 

"  Of  this   historian,"    Wieland  continued,    "  I 


—  AND  DEFENDED  123 

agree  that  his  chief  aim  is  to  punish  tyrants  ;  but 
if  he  denounces  them,  he  does  not  denounce  them 
to  slavish  men,  who  would  revolt  only  to  change 
tyrants.  Tacitus  denounces  tyrants  to  the 
justice  of  history  and  to  the  human  race,  for  it  is 
said  by  philosophers  that  the  human  race  must 
be  tried  by  suffering  until  its  reason  acquires  the 
force  which  its  passions  have  up  till  then  held." 

"  Yet  where  is  this  force  of  reason  ?  "  asks 
Napoleon.  "  I  look  for  it  on  all  sides  and  see  it 
nowhere." 

"  Sire,"  repHes  Wieland,  "  it  is  not  so  long  since 
Tacitus  has  come  into  fashion,  and  that  in  itself 
indicates  a  marked  advance  of  the  human  mind  ; 
for  during  centuries,  Academies  would  not  read 
him,  any  more  than  Courts,  and  the  slaves  of 
taste  were  as  much  afraid  of  him  as  the  advocates 
of  despotism.  It  is  only  since  Racine  called  him 
the  great  painter  of  antiquity  that  your  universities 
and  ours  have  felt  disposed  to  inquire  into  the 
possibility  of  his  being  really  so.  Your  Majesty 
declares  that  in  reading  Tacitus,  you  find  de- 
nunciation, assassination,  robbery  on  all  hands. 
But,  Sire,  that  is  exactly  what  the  Roman  Empire 
was  when  governed  by  the  monsters  whom 
Tacitus  so  severely  flayed.  The  genius  of  Livy 
followed  the  Legions  of  the  Roman  Republic 
throughout  the  world ;  that  of  Tacitus  con- 
centrated itself  on  the  law  reiDOii:s  (grejfe),  and 
it  was  here  that  the  real  history  of  the  Empire 
was  to  be  found.  It  is  indeed,  in  these  alone  that 
we    can   read    the   historv   of   nations    of   those 


124  NAPOLEON  AND  WEIMAR 

unhappy  ages,  when  princes  and  their  subjects, 
opposed  to  one  another  in  principles  and  ideals, 
lived  in  terror  of  each  other.  In  such  times  there 
is  little  else  to  chronicle  but  the  daily  records  of 
the  criminal  courts — ^when  death  at  the  hands 
of  the  public  executioner  comes  to  be  regarded 
almost  as  the  natural  way  of  leaving  life. 

"  Sire,  Suetonius  and  Dion  Cassius  have 
chronicled  a  far  greater  number  of  crimes  than 
Tacitus  ever  chronicled,  but  they  chronicle  them 
in  a  style  which  is  wholly  devoid  of  energy, 
whereas  nothing  is  more  terrible  than  the  stylus 
of  Tacitus  whose  genius  inclines  before  the  spirit 
of  justice  alone.  As  soon,  indeed,  as  he  perceives 
the  presence  of  Good — even  in  the  reign  of  that 
monster  Tiberius — he  swiftly  seizes  upon  it  and 
gives  to  it  the  salience  which  he  gives  to  everj''- 
thing  he  touches.  He  can  even  praise  a  fool  like 
Claudius,  where  praise  is  really  due,  and  this 
august  attribute  of  justice,  Tacitus  extends  with 
unerring  impartiality  to  all  conditions — to  the 
Republic  as  to  the  Empire,  to  subjects  as  well 
as  to  their  princes.  By  the  quality  of  his  genius, 
one  would  think  him  capable  of  attaching  himself 
to  the  Republic,  and  his  opinions  about  Brutus, 
Cassius,  Codrus  would  seem  to  confirm  this  view. 
Yet,  w^ien  he  speaks  of  the  Emperors  who  suc- 
ceeded in  reconciling  what  was  thought  to  be 
irreconcilable — namely.  Empire  and  Liberty — we 
can  feel  that  this  system  of  governance  appeals  to 
him  as  the  fairest  discovery  of  history." 

Here  a  certain  movement  in  the  large  group 


FOREWARNED !  125 

of  courtiers  signifies,  we  may  suppose,  not  so 
much  admiration  at  Wieland's  probably  prepared 
eloquence  as  a  desire  to  emphasise  the  obviously 
implied  compliment  to  Napoleon — truly  an  un- 
deserved compliment,  if  ever  was. 

"  Sire,"  the  Sage  continues,  "if  it  is  true  to 
say  of  Tacitus  that  tyrants  are  punished,  once  he 
has  portrayed  them,  how  much  more  truthful  is 
it  to  say  that  righteous  princes  are  rewarded  once 
he  has  traced  their  picture  for  posterity  !  " 

"  I  fight  against  odds.  Monsieur  Wieland," 
admits  the  Emperor  darkly.  "  You  sacrifice  no 
advantages,  I  see,  and  you  must  have  known  that 
I  was  no  admirer  of  Tacitus.  Do  you,  by  the 
way,  correspond  with  Monsieur  Johann  de  Miiller 
whom  I  met  last  year  in  Berlin  ?  "  Napoleon 
was  much  too  astute,  we  can  fancy,  not  to 
have  seen  that  all  Wieland's  eloquence  had  been 
prepared  against  contingencies. 

"  Yes,  Sire,"  replies  the  German  very  candidly. 

"  Ah,  then,  confess,"  laughs  Napoleon,  "  that 
he  has  written  to  you  on  the  subject  of  Tacitus." 

"It  is  true,"  admits  honest  old  Wieland,  "  it 
is  indeed  through  him  I  learned  that  your  Majesty 
liked  to  discuss  Tacitus,  and  also  that  you  did  not 
admire  him." 

"  I  will  not  admit  yet  that  I  am  beaten,"  de- 
clares Napoleon  ;  "a  thing  I  never  admit  very 
easily.  I  return  to-morrow  to  Erfurt,  and  we  shall 
resume  our  discussion  about  Tacitus.  I  have  a 
suflicient  stock  of  ammunition  in  my  arsenal  to 
show  that  for  all  his  investigation  of  the  motives 


126  NAPOLEON  AND  WEIMAR 

i  of  great  men,  he  did  not  sufficiently  develop  the 
h  causes  and  the  intimate  springs  of  important 
events.  He  did  not  study  deeply  enough  the 
mystery  of  facts  and  ideas,  and  failed  so  to  adjust 
them  in  the  chain  of  events  as  to  enable  posterity 
to  judge  correctly  and  impartially. 

"  History,  as  I  understand  it,"  Napoleon  goes 
on,  "  must  be  able  to  seize  upon  individuals  and 
1  nations  and  present  them  as  they  were  in  their 
'  own  day.  The  historian  should  take  into  account 
the  external  circumstances  which  must  necessarily 
have  exercised  a  great  influence  on  their  actions, 
and  see  clearly  the  limits  of  their  influence.  The 
Roman  Emperors  were  by  no  means  so  bad  as 
Tacitus  has  described  them.  I  much  prefer 
Montesquieu  to  the  Roman  ;  the  Frenchman  is 
more  just  and  his  judgments  nearer  to  truth." 

It  was  then  nearly  midnight  and  Wieland  began 
to  feel  the  strain  of  expressing  himself  in  a  language 
which  he  was  not  accustomed  to  speak.  "  I 
took  the  liberty,"  he  says, ''  of  asking  the  Emperor 
if  I  might  retire." 

"  Allez,^'  replied  Napoleon  graciously  ;  "  bonne 
nuit !  " 

The  Emperor,  on  another  occasion,  asked 
Wieland  which  age  he  considered  to  be  the  happiest 
for  mankind — a  question  he  had  also  put  to  the 
!  historian  Miiller,  at  Berlin,  in  1806,  when  the 
Prussian  gave  liis  verdict  in  favour  of  the  ages  of 
^y  the  Antonines.  In  his  turn,  old  Wieland  replied, 
with  admirable  wisdom  : 

"  A  decisive  answer  is  not  possible  to  such  a 


WIELAND'S  WISDOM  127 

question.  The  Greeks,  judged  by  their  general 
culture  and  by  the  poUtical  freedom  which  they 
enjoyed  as  citizens,  had  their  ages  of  great 
prosperity.  Rome  counted  among  her  princes 
more  than  one  who  might  be  called  the  good  angel 
of  humanity.  Other  nations,  too,  can  boast  of 
having  had  great  and  wise  governors.  Yet  it 
seems  to  me  that  the  general  history  of  the  world 
travels  ever  in  one  great  circle,  in  which  good  and 
evil,  virtue  and  vice  succeed  each  other  continu- 
ally. It  is  the  duty  of  the  philosopher  to  bring 
out  all  the  good  there  is  in  each  age,  so  as  to  make 
the  bad  supportable." 


CHAPTER  VII 
THE   IMPERIAL  ART-PATRON 


A  Specious  Sentimefd — Art,  Merit,  and  the  Xapoleonic 
Cult — The  Corsicans  Native  Materialism — A  Political 
Monument — Artists  a  "  Waspish  Lot" — Art  to  Order 
— Feeding  the  Fraterniti/—Ecoti07ny  in  PmLUc  Archi- 
tecture— A  Xapoleonic  Art — The  Emperor  s  Dislike 
of  Architects — Some  Prices  paid  to  Famous  Artists — 
The  Corsican  a  Connoisseur  without  Pretensions — 
Insistence  on  the  Napoleonic  Legend — How  to  hurt 
Englishmen — The  Imperial  Reclame — Napoleon  s  Art 
Collection  at  La  Malmaison — xi  List  of  Pictures 


NAPOLEON  once  declared  to  Decres 
that  he  did  not  want  his  reign  to  pass 
and  leave  a  single  man  of  merit  un- 
recognised— a  specious  sentiment  the 
sincerity  of  which  becomes  accurately  measurable 
when  we  study  the  case  of  Madame  de  Stael,  and 
consider  his  mode  of  distinguishing  Monsieur  de 
Chateaubriand.  Merit  which  did  not  contribute 
to  the  Napoleonic  legend  w^as,  in  the  eyes  of  the 
Corsican,  no  merit  at  all,  and  the  established 
mediocrity  of  all  those  who  formed  part  of  the 
circle  of  his  art  patronage,  whether  as  writers  or 
poets  or  painters,  may  be  put  down,  sans  phrase, 
to  the  fact  that  artistic  genius  is  a  quality  which, 
on  the  highest  planes,  can  achieve  its  particular 
results  only  when  it  remains  independent  of,  and 
even  uninspired  by,  objective  sources.  Certainly 
the  inspirations  of  a  fighting  soldier  are  not 
calculated  to  assist  its  progress  in  any  surround- 
ings, or  in  any  age — least  of  all  such  inspirations 
as  came  from  Napoleon,  whose  artisticity  was 
that  of  the  geometrician  or  the  mathematical 
expert,  wholly  uncoloured  by  sentiment,  entirely 
lacking  in  the  warmth  of  a  higher  or  poetic  vision, 
and  limited  altogether  to  the  actualities  of  current 
circumstance.  Accordingly,  when  he  decided  that 
the  Art  of  the  first  Imperial  age  of  France  should 
bear  an  Imperial  cachet,  he  limited  its  expression 
not  only  as  an  artistic  force,  but  also  as  one  which, 
had  it  been  left  to  work  out  its  original  genius, 
must  have  contributed  by  its  own  richer  results 
to  the  greater  glory  of  his  reign. 

130 


POLITICAL  ARTISTRY  131 

Despotism,  it  has  been  said,  fears  neither 
mathematicians  nor  artists,  and  while  anxious 
for  the  advancement  of  all  matters  aesthetic,  the 
Corsican  gave  his  patronage  to  the  Fine  Arts  for 
much  the  reason  that  inspires  the  great  new-rich 
art -collectors  of  to-day — namely,  self-glorification, 
not  at  all  praiseworthy,  and  certainly  not  always 
artistic.  We  could  cite,  if  necessary,  many  proofs 
here  in  point  :  he  hastened  on  the  building  of 
the  Louvre,  for  example,  because,  as  Bausset 
(quoting  the  Emperor  himself)  says,  it  was  neces- 
sary, in  view  of  his  relatively  ambiguous  position 
among  the  sovereigns  of  Europe,  to  possess  a 
grander  palace  than  other  kings.  When  Vignon 
proposed  his  Temple  of  Glory,  Napoleon  agreed 
on  the  condition  that  the  edifice  should  be 
completed  within  four  years,  because,  as  he 
said  : 

"  This  monument  is  to  some  extent  a  political 
monument,  and  must  therefore  be  finished  quickly, 
so  as  to  count  for  something  in  the  national  con- 
ditions of  the  day." 

No  American  raiser  of  sky-scrapers  ever  carried 
business-like  expediency  to  a  higher  point  than 
this,  we  think.  And,  as  will  be  seen  in  due  course, 
if  he  associated  with  artists  and  treated  them  with 
an  amiability  which  one  divines  to  be  really 
foreign  to  his  nature,  it  was  certainly  not  for  any 
regard  for  a  class  of  beings  who  are  to  a  great 
extent  a  race  apart,  and  as  such  could  win 
no  sympathy  from  Napoleon's  regimental  mind 
with  its  plans  arrctes  and  its   essentially   fixed 


132       THE  IMPERIAL  ART-PATRON 

notions.  In  regard  to  the  artistic  brotherhood, 
indeed,  we  can  well  conceive  of  Napoleon  de- 
scribing them  in  the  phrase  attributed  to  Lord 
Melbourne — "  a  waspish  lot."  All  his  affected 
intimacies  with  writers,  painters,  sculptors  and 
musicians  were  calculated  solely  to  make  them 
contribute  to  the  magnificence  of  his  legend. 
Only  this  and  nothing  more. 

"  The  Emperor,"  says  a  writer  of  that  time, 
"  is  most  anxious  to  unite  to  the  glory  of  a  great 
sovereign,  the  reputation  of  an  enlightened  pro- 
tector of  the  Arts,  which  distinguished  Pericles, 
Augustus  and  Louis  XIV.,  and  the  mot  d^ordre  to 
the  officials  of  the  world  of  Art  is  to  work  towards 
this  end." 

Talented  artists  were  to  be  won  over  to  official 
views  about  art  matters  by  good  salaries,  as  well 
as  by  the  prospect  of  being  permanently  employed. 
At  one  time  he  considered  triumphal  arches  as 
so  many  extravagances ;  after  1806,  however, 
when  his  mania  for  immortality  became  an  en- 
during obsession,  he  decided  to  erect  four  such 
monuments,  with  the  object,  as  he  himself  declared 
in  his  own  cynical  fashion,  of  feeding  Sculpture  for 
at  least  twenty  years  to  come.  And  in  a  public 
manifesto,  the  essentially  unartistic  Modernist  and 
Philistine  speaks  when  he  declares  that  in  view 
of  the  valuable  prizes  which  are  being  offered  to 
art  workers,  France  has  a  right  to  expect  that 
her  artists  shall  produce  masterpieces !  Contem- 
poraries do  not  fail  to  note  the  real  parsimony 
which    marks    his    treatment    of    painters    and 


ECONOMY  IN  ART  133 

sculptors,  and  a  letter  of  his,  addressed  to  the 
Minister  of  the  Interior,  recommends  that  function- 
ary to  see  to  it  that  only  the  most  economical 
styles  are  to  be  encouraged.  To  the  same  official 
he  writes  the  following  order  in  March,  1808  : — 

"  I  should  like  to  have  a  bridge  constructed 
leading  to  the  Invalides.  One  like  the  Pont  des 
Arts  would  come  to  about  £30,000  and  must  soon 
repay  its  cost.  Once  completed,  its  shares  could 
be  sold  and  the  money  devoted  to  other  civic 
improvements." 

Historical  writers  have  not  omitted  to  note 
that,  wherever  possible,  he  razed  such  monuments 
and  edifices  as  were  likely  to  recall  the  glories  of 
previous  French  sovereigns,  and  to  this  tendency 
on  his  part  may  be  attributed  the  destruction 
of  Marly,  of  Chantilly,  of  the  Abbey  of  Saint 
Martin  of  Tours,  of  Cluny,  the  disappearance  of 
all  of  which  historical  grandeurs  dates  from  the 
Consulate.  Many  of  his  intimates — if  such  a 
being  ever  possessed  an  intimate — declared  that 
he  not  only  was  incapable  of  appreciating  Archi- 
tecture, but  that  his  antipathy  extended  even  to 
the  greatest  exponents  of  that  art,  his  expressed 
opinion  being  that  they  were  on  all  counts  inferior 
to  engineers.  To  those  who  advocated  the  con- 
struction of  spectacular  edifices,  and  cited  the  vast 
constructions  of  Louis  XIV.,  as  contributions  to 
the  prestige  of  that  monarch.  Napoleon  more  than 
once  replied,  with  much  cogency,  that  the  renown 
of  a  king  lay  not  in  monuments  which  the  servility 
of  one  age  readily  raised  to  his  glory,  and  which 


\ 


134       THE  IMPERIAL  ART-PATRON 

the  insouciance  of  another  demohshed  with  equal 
readiness.  One  reason  for  his  dislike  of  architects 
was  said  to  be  the  extravagance  they  showed  in 
estimates  submitted  for  projected  constructions  ; 
in  which  estimate  their  sense  of  necessary  expendi- 
ture came  into  violent  conflict  wdth  that  of  the 
Imperial  economist — a  trait  which  suggests  that 
the  Corsican  himself  had  few  illusions  that  his 
reign  was  not  to  be  a  lengthy  one  ;  a  reflection,  too, 
which  becomes  all  the  more  insistent  when  we 
consider  the  fact  that  the  Luxembourg's  decora- 
tions were  all  executed  in  simili,  as  the  artists 
put  it,  meaning  that  the  walls  and  the  pillars 
were  painted  to  resemble  marble,  the  candelabra 
to  look  like  bronze,  and  so  on. 

Heavily  remunerated  artists  of  the  present  day 
would  certainly  not  think  the  following  payments 
extravagant,  considering  the  high  status  of  the 
painters  :  For  his  picture  of  the  Jaffa  jDlague 
victims,  Gros  received  625  guineas ;  Vernet,  for  his 
battle  of  Austerlitz,  £800  ;  David,  for  his  Corona- 
tion and  The  Oath  canvases,  £4800.  Imperial 
portraits  had  a  regulation  rate  of  remuneration — 
namely,  £240 — while  the  "  stock  "  portrait  of  the 
Emperor,  to  be  placed  in  town  halls  and  pre- 
fectures, cost  just  £120.  Painters  who  executed 
miniatures  of  the  sovereign  received  £20  to  £24. 
Full-sized  pictures  of  marshals  and  high  officials 
went  at  £160.  David's  portrait  of  Pius  VII. 
brought  in  £400  for  the  original  and  £480  for  two 
copies  by  himself.  For  his  battle  of  Quiberon, 
Hennequin  received  £160,  in   1804,  and   artists 


THE  PRACTICAL  CORSICAN         135 

who  executed  pictures  of  the  Imperial  horses 
received  £5,  5s.  for  each  effort,  while  Vernet  as  a 
special  favour  got  £10.  Sculptors  received  £600 
for  a  large  work,  and  full-length  statues  cost 
£400,  the  price  of  busts  being  £116. 

It  is  only  fair  to  the  memory  of  the  Corsican 
to  say  that  in  matters  of  Art  he  never  posed  as 
a  connoisseur,  and  if  the  charge  of  mediocrity 
hangs  over  the  art  productions  of  his  age,  it  has 
to  be  remembered  that  in  the  majority  of  com- 
missions, the  artists  and  the  subjects  were  the 
choice  of  ministers  who,  like  true  business  men, 
distributed  their  patronage  usually  in  considera- 
tion of  an  honorarium.  The  great  soldier,  under 
no  illusions  as  to  his  own  aptitudes  or  tastes  in 
aesthetic  matters,  never  affected  to  be  moved  by 
any  inspirations  in  regard  to  such  matters.  In 
architecture,  in  painting,  in  sculpture,  the  appeal 
made  itself  essentially  to  the  natural  objectivity 
of  his  mind.  In  a  building,  for  example,  he  looked 
for  solidity,  rapidity  of  construction  and  economy 
He  was,  indeed,  so  insistent  on  the  first  of  these 
qualities,  as  likely  to  contribute  towards  the 
immortalisation  of  his  own  name,  that  had  he 
possessed  greater  patience,  said  David,  on  one 
occasion,  he  must  surely  have  built  in  granite. 
He  was  also  a  consistent  advocate  of  iron  for 
bridge-construction  as  well  as  for  domes,  even 
suggesting  the  employment  of  that  metal  for  the 
pillars  of  the  Pantheon.  Swiftness  in  execution 
— ^this  was  a  prime  requisite  of  all  his  conceptions, 
and  the  fact  carries  its  own  explanation,  showing, 


\^ 


) 


136       THE  IMPERIAL  ART-PATRON 

as  it  does,  that  his  vanity,  far  more  than  any 
consideration  of  the  aesthetic,  counted  in  all  his 
architectural  projects.  In  June,  1810,  he  wrote 
to  Montalivet  urging  him  to  greater  activity  in 
the  building  of  the  Arc  de  Triomphe  : 

"  I  want  to  finish  with  this  structure,"  he  said, 
"  and  if  you  cannot  work  more  quickly,  I  will 
make  a  supplementary  appropriation  of  £24,000 
to  enable  you  to  do  so." 

Daru,  supposedly  the  connoisseur  of  the 
Imperial  entourage,  once  wrote  to  the  directors 
of  the  Musce  des  Gobelins  informing  them  that  it 
was  Napoleon's  desire  that  artists  should  confine 
themselves  to  historical  scenes  depicting  the  story 
of  France,  and  it  was  in  much  the  same  strain  that 
he  urged  David  to  give  up  painting  the  classical 
ages  and  confine  himself  to  national — that  is, 
Napoleonic  —  subjects.  Again,  in  organising 
various  competitions  among  artists,  the  Emperor 
insisted  on  historical  subjects  dealing  with  France 
as  the  first  condition  of  successful  candidacy. 
The  sculptors  were  officially  informed  by  a  decree 
of  1806  that  in  the  matter  of  bas-reliefs  and 
statuary,  the  choice  of  subjects  was  to  be  made 
from  :  (1)  the  exploits  of  Napoleon  ;  (2)  from  the 
story  of  the  Revolution  ;  (3)  from  the  history  of 
France.  A  premium  was  to  be  placed  on  any 
work  which  should  humiliate  England  and  Russia, 
and  William  the  Conqueror  was  suggested  as  a 
model  always  likely  to  touch  Englishmen  in  their 
tenderest  susceptibilities.  In  1805  he  wrote  to 
Talleyrand    urging    that    ^linister    to    begin    a 


HIS  PERSONAL  TASTES  137 

campaign  having  for  its  object  the  staging  of 
"  comedies  de  cir Constance,''''  as  well  as  the  com- 
position of  ballads  and  music-hall  songs  bearing 
on  his  projected  invasion  of  England. 

In  the  same  year  was  issued  another  official 
note  to  the  artistic  brotherhood,  in  which  it  was 
stated  that  "  all  artists  who  by  15th  August  shall 
not  have  delivered  their  commissioned  works, 
will  be  held  to  be  unequal  to  the  exigencies 
of  government  work."  The  Corsican  evidently 
counted  inspiration  and  temperament  for  minus 
factors  in  sesthetical  productions.  And  with  the 
commissions — what  an  artillery  of  instructions, 
delivered  sergeant  -  major  fashion !  Thus,  to 
Gerard  for  his  picture  which  presents  Napoleon 
surrounded  by  his  staff,  signing  the  SavIss  Act  of 
Mediation  : 

"  Above  all,  put  every  possible  magnificence  into 
the  uniforms  of  the  officers  attending  on  Napoleon, 
and  a  corresponding  simplicity  of  detail  for  the 
Emperor,  so  that  he  shall  stand  out  all  the  more 
clearly  in  the  whole  scene." 

Daru,  on  another  occasion,  ordered  a  series  of 
miniatures  of  the  Emperor,  who  was  to  be  "  re- 
presented with  a  rather  pleasing  (gracieuse)  face." 
One  of  the  best  critiques  passed  upon  Napoleon's 
aesthetic  notions  in  painting  was  that  which  de- 
clared him  to  have  appreciated  David's  reputa- 
tion rather  than  his  talent.  The  Imperial  taste 
was  predisposed  rather  to  the  work  of  Gros,  his 
favourite,  and  to  Gerard  and  Vernet ;  also  to 
"  anecdotal  "  painters  like  Prudh'on  and  Robert 


138       THE  IMPERIAL  ART-PATRON 

Lefevre.  In  regard  to  Gros,  who  painted  the 
Jaffa  picture,  Napoleon  was  ever  enthusiastic, 
and  on  inspecting  that  work  of  art  declared 
that  it  was  "  a  real  masterpiece "  and  that  its 
"  miracle  of  chiaro-oscuro  placed  it  on  a  level 
with  the  best  work  of  Tintoretto  and  Paul 
Veronese." 

Napoleon  had  his  own  private  collection  at 
La  Malmaison,  and  authorities  declared  that 
it  provided  an  excellent  index  of  his  general 
artistic  taste,  as .  well  as  of  that  of  Josephine. 
/Gerard,  Dow,  Albrecht  Durer,  Champaigne, 
•^  Murillo,  Rubens,  Teniers,  Van  Ostade,  Fra 
^  Bartolomeo  were  all  represented  in  this  gallery, 
:  and  Rembrandt's  Descent  from  the  Cross  was 
also  included.  He  declared  at  St  Helena  that  the 
Duke  of  Parma  in  1797  had  offered  him  £80,000 
to  be  allowed  to  retain  Correggio's  famous  Saint 
Jerome  from  among  the  vast  collection  which 
Bonaparte  was  then  despoiling.  Many  of  his 
advisers  suggested  that  the  money  was  more 
necessary  than  the  paintings.  The  young 
Corsican  disagreed,  however,  and  on  the  ground 
that  the  money  would  soon  be  spent,  whilst 
Saint  Jerome  would  remain  an  ornament  of  the 
French  capital  for  ever,  and  could  not  fail  to 
inspire  other  masterpieces.  From  the  Grand 
Duke  of  Tuscany  he  stole  the  Medici  Venus  for 
admittedly  the  same  reason. 

Follomng  are  among  the  principal  paintings 
and  other  works  of  art  which  adorned  Napoleon's 
private  galleries  at  La  Malmaison  : 


7 


HIS  OWN  GALLERY  139 

Francois  Albane  :  Nature — a  woman  suckling 
her  children. 

Francois   Albane  :     Diana   bathing   with    her 
Nymphs. 

Barbieri  :   Saint  Sebastian. 

Le  Bachiche  :   The  Fates. 

A.  Carracci  :   Venus  and  Love. 

S.    Ferrato  :    Cojjy    of    BajohaeVs    Madonna 
delta  Sedia. 

J.  B.  Greuze  :    Young  GirVs  Head. 
J        MuRiLLO  :  The  Virgin  and  St  Ann. 

Rubens  :   Descent  from  the  Cross.     Taken  from 
If^-^         a    Capuchin    monastery    at    Lierre,    near 
Antwerp. 

Rubens  :    Women  Bathers  surprised  by  Storm. 

Raphael  :   Holy  Family. 

Raphael  :   St  George  ;   St  Michael. 

Del  Sarto  :   Holy  Family. 

Teniers  :   A  Flemish  Kitchen. 

Titian  :  The  Toilet  of  Venus. 

Da  Vinci  :    St  Margaret. 

Da  Vinci  :    Virgin  suckling  her  Son. 

P.  Veronese  :    Woman  holding  a  Child. 

P.  Veronese  :  A  Venetian  Family. 

C.  J.  Vernet  :    Italian  Landscape  at  Sunset. 

Gerard  :    Portrait  of  Princess  Caroline  Bona- 
parte. 

Laurent  :    Fidl-length  Portrait  of  Josephine. 

Unknown  :   A  City  in  Flames. 

Unknown  :   Equestrian  Portrait  of  Napoleon. 

Unknown  :    Portrait  of  Frederick  the  Great. 

Van  Dyck  :    Children  of  Charles  L  of  England. 


140       THE  IMPERIAL  ART-PATRON 

Van   Dyck  :    Portrait  of  Charles   I.   and  his 

Consort. 
MuRiLLO  :    The  Nativity. 
Holbein  :   Portrait  of  Laura. 
David  :   Children  of  Brutus. 
P.  P.  Prudh'on  :   The  Four  Seasons. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
DAVID,   THE   IMPERIAL   PAINTER 

David  in  1797 — His  Meeting  with  Bonaparte — A 
Visit  to  the  Atelier — A  Soldier's  Blunt  Criticism — 
"These  Military  Philistines" — David's  Promotioii — 
Bonaparte  crossing  the  Alps — David  and  his  School 
— A  Lover  of  the  Limelight — David  and  the  Corona- 
tion— A  Painter  s  Whole  Ambition — Gerard  and  the 
Coronation  Picture — A  Happy  Suggestion — Pauline 
Bonaparte  and  Gerard — Napoleon's  Satisfaction — 
David  and  the  Legion — The  Douglas  Portrait  of  the 
Emperor — David  and  the  Peerage 


LONG  before  Bonaparte  had  revealed,  in 
the  campaign  of  Italy,  his  genius  for  war, 
David  was  the  most  celebrated  painter 
in  France.  He  had  played  a  considerable 
part  in  the  tortuous  political  intrigues  which 
closed  the  Revolutionary  era,  had  been  a  partisan 
of  the  popular  side,  and  even  suffered  imprison- 
ment for  having  criticised  with  too  much  candour 
the  policies  of  self-interested  leaders. 

Born  in  1784,  he  had  already  won  a  European 
reputation  with  his  Horatii,  his  Socrates,  his 
famous  Paris  and  Helen  and  several  portraits. 
He  was  well  known,  therefore,  to  Bonaparte  when 
the  latter,  after  the  battle  of  Rivoli,  invited  him 
to  join  his  victorious  army,  thus  presenting  him 
with  a  rare  opportunity  of  committing  to  canvas 
the  scenes  of  several  celebrated  battles.  David 
refused,  pleading  other  engagements,  but  never- 
theless retained  a  kindly  recollection  of  the 
young  conqueror's  interest.  The  artist  was  at 
that  time  engaged  on  the  famous  Sabine  Women, 
and  he  was  not  to  meet  Bonaparte  until  the  latter 
returned  to  Paris,  when  the  secretary  of  the 
Directory,  M.  Lagarde,  gave  a  banquet  at  which 
the  Corsican  was  the  guest  of  honour.  He  had 
stipulated  for  the  presence  of  David,  whose  work 
had  much  impressed  him,  he  said.  Monsieur 
Lagarde  agreed,  and  although  he  had  no  particular 
acquaintance  with  David,  called  immediately  on 
the  latter  requesting  the  honour  of  his  company. 
David  declined,  under  some  pretext  or  other,  and 
it  was  only  when  Lagarde  explained  to  him  the 

142 


SOLDIER  AND  ARTIST  148 

quandary  in  which  the  refusal  placed  him,  that 
the  artist  amiably  consented  to  accept. 

General  Bonaparte's  sense  of  social  decencies 
was  evidently  not  a  profound  characteristic,  for 
on  the  occasion  of  this  banquet,  having  taken 
Madame  Lagarde  in  to  dinner,  he  requested  another 
guest  to  occupy  his  place  at  the  lady's  right  hand, 
and  himself  sat  down  by  the  side  of  David,  who 
tells  us  that  it  was  during  this  meeting  he  solicited 
the  honour  of  painting  the  General's  portrait. 
Some  days  afterwards  Bonaparte  proceeded  to 
the  artist's  famous  studio  near  the  Luxembourg, 
accompanied  by  two  aides-de-camp.  In  accord- 
ance with  his  pretence  of  sinking  the  military  man 
and  affecting  the  savant,  on  his  return  from  Italy, 
the  General,  David  informs  us,  was  dressed  in 
civiUan  garb — a  dark  blue  frock-coat,  a  large 
black  cravat,  an  enormous  hat  d  comes  and 
his  hair  heavily  powdered.  A  sitting  of  three 
hours  was  given  the  painter,  and,  as  might  be 
expected,  Bonaparte  did  not  fail  to  show  his 
impatience.  He  concluded  the  interview  amiably, 
nevertheless,  by  inviting  David  to  accompany 
him  on  his  expedition  to  Egypt — an  adventure 
which  the  artist  refused  on  the  ground  of  his 
fifty  years. 

When  they  met  again,  after  Bonaparte's  return 
from  the  Nile,  David  had  just  put  the  last 
touches  to  his  Rape  of  the  Sabine  Wo))ien.  Paris 
— indeed  all  artistic  Europe — was  then  talking  of 
this  work,  although  the  critics  were  by  no  means 
unanimous  in  its  praise.     There  was  a  lack  of 


144     DAVID,  THE  IMPERIAL  PAINTER 

force  in  the  whole  composition,  an  absence  of  the 
suggestion  of  full  movement,  a  failure  to  hint 
the  required  violence  in  such  a  tumultuous  scene, 
the  critics  said.  Bonaparte,  preferring  to  judge 
for  himself,  decided  to  visit  the  atelier  and  was 
received  by  the  master. 

"  I  never  saw  soldiers  fight  as  you  make  your 
r  soldiers  fight.  Monsieur  David,"  he  said,  after 
j  inspecting  the  canvas.  "  Let  me  show  you  how 
soldiers  fight,"  and  the  General  throws  himself 
into  the  attitude  of  a  soldier  doing  execution  with 
his  bayonet. 

David  replies  that  it  was  not  his  intention  to 
represent  modern  French  soldiers,  but  warriors 
of  antiquity. 

"  But  your  warriors,"  Bonaparte  goes  on 
querulously,  "  lack  fire,  lack  action  and  lack 
enthusiasm,  my  dear  David.  Take  my  advice 
and  change  all  that.  You  will  find  that  the  public 
will  be  of  my  opinion." 

"  These  military  PhiHstines  know  nothing  about 
Art,"  cried  David,  when  the  First  Consul  had  left. 
The  artist  did  not  easily  forgive  the  Corsican  for 
his  somewhat  brutal  criticism — all  the  more  so 
because  his  fellow-artists  were  of  opinion  that  the 
painter's  conception  and  execution  were  quite 
sound.  Bonaparte  made  him  some  amends  soon 
after  by  appointing  our  artist  to  be  inspector  of 
the  schools  of  Fine  Arts  in  France.  It  became 
customary  thereafter  for  the  Consul  to  take 
David  on  a  tour  of  Paris,  asking  the  painter  for 
suggestions  as  to  the  embellishment  of  the  city, 


IN  THE  ATELIER  145 

and  in  the  course  of  these  excursions,  it  is  worth 
noting,  David — an  old  Revolvitionary — detailed 
to  Bonaparte  the  grandiose  schemes  which  the 
Revolutionary  Fathers  had  entertained  for  making 
Paris  the  first  capital  of  the  world.  David  it  was 
who  suggested  the  modernisation  of  the  Invalides 
— originally  the  work  of  Louis  XIV. — as  we 
know  that  famous  edifice  to-day. 

On  his  return  from  Marengo,  the  First  Consul 
expressed  a  wish  to  be  painted  again,  and  David, 
sensible  of  the  honour,  suggested  a  picture  of 
Bonaparte  in  battle,  sword  in  hand. 

"No,  my  dear  David,"  objected  the  General, 
"  battles  are  not  won  with  swords.  I  prefer  to  be 
portrayed  in  repose,"  and  he  goes  on  to  give  the 
painter  some  idea  of  what  he  thinks  portraiture 
should  be.  David  insists  on  longer  sittings,  only 
to  CA^oke  the  First  Consul's  ire. 

"  An  exact   portrait,"  he  cries,   "  does   not,   I 
imagine,    consist    just    in    confining    oneself    to 
accuracy   in    details — a   wart    on   the    nose,    for    ^»^ 
instance.     What  is  necessary  is  not  so  much  the      / 
physiognomy,  as  the  soul  of  the  subject."  .,.'-* 

"  But  one  condition  does  not  exclude  the  other, 
General,"  objects  David. 

"  Did  Alexander  ever  sit  to  Apelles,  think  you  ?  " 
Bonaparte  continues.  "  No  one  nowadays  asks 
if  the  portraits  of  great  men  were  like  them.  It 
is  sufficient  that  their  genius  should  be  shown  in 
the  picture." 

"  Verily  you  teach  me  the  art  of  painting,"  re- 
plies the  artist.    "  But  I  feel  that  you  are  right  and 


146     DAVID,  THE  IMPERIAL  PAINTER 

will  paint  you  without  troubling  you  for  sittings." 
The  result  was  Bonaparte  crossing  the  Alps,  one  of 
the  best-known  tableaux  representing  Napoleon. 

It  is  proper  to  chronicle  here  the  fact  that  most 
of  his  biographers  refuse — and  in  our  view  quite 
properly — to  believe  that  David  allowed  a  soldier 
to  dictate  to  him  as  to  the  manner  in  which  a 
painting  should  be  executed.  An  artist  so  long 
celebrated  was  hardly  likely  to  admit  that  even 
a  First  Consul  could  teach  him  anything  about 
painting,  says  David's  grandson  and  voluminous 
biographer,  J.  L.  Jules  David.  In  flattering  the 
omnipotent  Bonaparte,  the  artist  may,  however, 
have  had  in  view  his  life's  great  ambition,  which 
was  to  occupy  in  matters  of  Art  the  same  position 
which  the  First  Consul  held  as  regards  the  national 
Executive.  A  short  time  before  Marengo  he 
had  refused  the  official  position  offered  to  him 
by  Bonaparte,  because  the  decree  described  him 
merely  as  "  the  painter  of  the  government." 
Bonapartism  had  already  entered  into  fashion, 
and  David,  small  blame,  wanted  to  be  supreme 
in  his  own  domain. 

The  painter's  eldest  son  posed,  in  the  sequel, 
for  the  figure  of  Bonaparte  in  the  stately  canvas. 
Gerard  was  also  on  one  occasion  called  into  his 
master's  service  to  the  same  end,  the  youthful 
pupil  posing  for  that  heroic  gesture  which  repre- 
sents the  Conqueror  with  the  right  arm  out- 
stretched and  pointing  upward.  It  is  not  long, 
however,  before  Gerard  begins  to  tire,  and  his 
master  chaffs  him  on  his  lack  of  stamina. 


GROS,  GERARD,  ISABEY  147 

"  Tenez,  Gerard,"  cries  David,  at  last,  "  come 
off  that  ladder  and  take  my  palette.  You  can 
paint  the  arm  much  better  than  you  pose  for  it." 

The  work  was  completed  on  21st  September 
1801,  and  duly  exposed  for  the  public's  inspection 
— at  so  many  francs  a  head  !  A  long  polemic 
followed  in  the  papers,  dealing  with  the  painter's 
exploitation  of  the  patriotism  of  his  fellow- 
citizens,  and  it  was  long  before  David  heard  the 
end  of  his  little  harpagonade. 

The  story  of  David's  relations  with  Bonaparte 
includes  that  of  the  relations  of  his  pupils  Gerard, 
Gros,  Isabey  and  other  painters  with  the  con- 
queror of  Italy.  Isabey's  two  pictures  General 
Boncqjarte  at  La  Malmaison  and  his  Review  by 
the  First  Consul  at  the  Tuileries  are  probably  the 
most  popular  works  of  that  artist.  Gros  had 
already  become  celebrated  by  his  noted  tableau 
representing  the  plague  at  Jaffa,  and  had  been 
instrumental,  moreover,  in  bringing  Bonaparte's 
attention  to  the  merits  of  his  master,  when,  armed 
with  letters  of  introduction  to  Josephine,  he  joined 
the  headquarters  of  the  Army  of  Italy.  Nor  had 
he  failed  to  make  the  most  of  his  kindly  reception 
at  the  hands  of  the  Corsican.  His  pupils,  hardly 
less  than  David,  were  well  known,  therefore,  to 
Bonaparte  on  the  eve  of  the  establishment  of  the 
Empire,  a  short  time  before  which  event  the 
Emperor-elect  summoned  his  painter-in-chief  to 
the  Tuileries,  asking  him  on  what  particular  work 
he  was  then  engaged.  The  story  of  Leonidas 
and   his  Spartans  at  Thermopylae — the    subject 


148     DAVID,  THE  IMPERIAL  PAINTER 

no  of  the  painter's  actual  work — evidently  made 
appeal  to  Napoleon. 

"  You  are  wrong,  David,"  he  said,  "  to  waste 
your  time  painting  beaten  warriors." 

"  But,"  objected  the  artist,  "  these  vanquished 
heroes  were  as  great  as  their  conquerors." 

"  Never  mind,"  replied  Napoleon  testily  ;  "  the 
name  of  Leonidas  is  the  only  one  which  has  come 
down  to  us.     The  rest  are  all  lost  to  history." 

As  he  left  after  his  audience,  Lucien  Bonaparte, 
who  had  also  been  present,  accosted  the  painter. 

"  You  must  understand,  my  dear  David," 
explained  Lucien,  "  that  my  brother  Napoleon 
takes  an  interest  only  in  pictures  in  which  he 
counts  for  something.  It  is  his  weakness  and  he 
has  no  objection  at  all  to  being  in  the  limelight." 

Soon  after  David  was  given  the  Legion  of 
Honour,  and  at  the  establishment  of  the  Empire 
was  appointed  first  painter  to  the  Emperor,  with 
the  commission  to  execute  in  detail  the  ceremonies 
connected  with  the  coronation  of  Napoleon.  It 
is  hardly  necessary  to  go  into  the  story  of  this 
spectacular  episode  in  the  history  of  the  Corsican. 
Nevertheless,  the  inise  en  scene  of  the  ceremony 
counted  for  so  much  in  David's  composition  that 
we  may  recall  the  short  description  by  Thiers  : 

"  On  the  altar  lay  the  crown,  the  sceptre,  the 
sword,  the  mantle.  The  Pope,  according  to  the 
ancient  custom,  touched  the  Emperor  on  the  fore- 
head, the  arms  and  palms  with  the  sacred  oil, 
blessed  the  sword  which  he  also  buckled  on,  the 
sceptre  which  he  placed  in  the  Imperial  hands, 


THE  COEONATION  SCENE  149 

and  then  approached  the  altar  to  take  the 
crown. 

"  Napoleon,  however,  closely  watching  his  move- 
ments, seized  the  crown  from  the  Pontiff's  out- 
stretched hands — not  roughly,  as  it  was  said, 
but  with  decision — and  placed  it  upon  his  own 
head.  This  action,  the  significance  of  which  was 
clear  to  all  present,  produced  an  indescribable 
effect  upon  the  assembly.  Then  the  Emperor  took 
up  the  second  crown  and,  approaching  Josephine 
as  she  knelt  before  him,  placed  it  with  evident 
tenderness  upon  the  head  of  his  Consort,  who 
forthwith  gave  way  to  tears." 

David  himself  tells  us  of  the  many  annoyances 
which  the  Imperial  commission  caused  him,  more 
particularly  during  the  rehearsal  for  his  final 
sittings,  when  pretentious  courtiers,  for  whom 
the  clock  meant  nothing,  quarrelled  with  each 
other  for  precedence  in  the  foreground  of  the  great 

bleau.  Finally,  an  official  decree  assigned  to 
each  personage  a  proper  place.  David,  it  may 
be  said,  had  been  given  a  suitable  loge  during  the 
ceremony  at  Notre  Dame,  and  there  had  made 
a  rough  draft  of  the  scene  at  a  highly  dramatic 
moment — the  Emperor  in  the  act  of  crowning 
himself,  as  he  had  at  first  designed  the  work. 
Before  starting  on  this  tableau,  the  painter  sent 
in  a  requisition  for  £1000,  and  Napoleon,  to  whom 
the  request  was  submitted  at  ^lilan,  scrawled 
across  his  paymaster's  note  the  following  words  : — 

"  If  M.  David  has  not  yet  received  any  money 
on  account  of  the  work  of  the  Coronation  on  which 


150     DAVID,  THE  IMPERIAL  PAINTER 

he  is  now  engaged,  I  see  no  objection  to  his  being 
paid  25,000  francs  " — the  required  sum. 

In  pursuance  of  his  ambition  to  preside  over 
the  destinies  of  artistic  France,  David  addressed 
a  memorial  in  1805  to  the  Emperor,  soUciting 
for  himself  the  position  which  Lebrun  had 
occupied  during  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  The 
Revolutionary  of  the  days  of  Robespierre  had  long 
since  learned  the  arts  of  the  courtier,  and  the 
style  adopted  by  the  painter  towards  his  Imperial 
patron  was  worthy  of  the  most  flattering  effusions 
of  the  days  of  the  Roi-Soleil.  His  candid  biog- 
rapher and  grandson,  Jules,  declares,  sans  fagons, 
that  his  grandsire's  real  object  in  soliciting  a 
superior  official  post  was  to  effect  the  removal  of 
Denon  from  the  headship  of  the  Museum  Art 
Gallery,  a  post  which  gave  its  holder  an  authorita- 
tive voice  in  all  concerns  connected  with  the  Fine 
Arts,  even  to  a  control  of  the  contracts  for  civic 
edifices.  Napoleon,  it  would  seem,  never  saw 
the  memorial,  since  David  received  no  acknow- 
ledgment as  to  his  proposals.  Denon  executed 
the  Colonne  Vendome,  it  will  be  remembered,  and 
never  once  lost  the  Emperor's  favour. 

About  this  time  Napoleon  gave  David  a  com- 
mission to  execute  a  portrait  of  himself  in  regalia, 
for  the  city  of  Genoa.  The  work  was  submitted 
for  Imperial  inspection  on  4th  July  1806,  when 
Napoleon  refused  to  accept  it,  "  as  being  so  badly 
done  that  if  the  portrait  were  sent  into  Italy,  it 
could  not  fail  to  give  the  Italians  a  poor  idea 
of  our  art."     In  this  explanation  it  is  certainly 


PUPIL  AND  MASTER  151 

not  hard  to  divine  the  Corsican  in  search  of  an 
excuse. 

David's  enemies  soon  heard  of  his  bad  fortune, 
however,  and  it  was  rumoured  that  the  painter 
had  confided  the  Genoa  portrait  to  one  of  his  least 
skilful  pupils.  Great  hopes  were  accordingly 
entertained  by  the  opposition  that  the  fall  of  the 
Maestro  was  imminent,  all  the  more  credibly  so 
because  Regnault — the  painter  of  the  Education  of 
Achilles — had  also  been  commissioned  to  execute 
a  portrait  of  the  Emperor.  Regnault  was,  never- 
theless, not  more  successful  than  David,  who,  well 
knowing  that  his  rival  had  engaged  in  many  in- 
trigues for  supplanting  him,  took  his  revenge  in  a 
bon  mot  which  swiftly  went  the  tourof  artisticParis. 

"Well,  Regnault,"  he  said,  on  their  meeting 
at  the  Institut,  "  it  appears  the  Emperor  is  not 
satisfied  with  our  portraits.  As  likely  as  not,  too, 
because  I  did  not  paint  mine,  as  it  is  rumoured, 
and  because  you  painted  yours." 

The  Coronation  picture  took  some  three  years 
to  execute,  and  the  artist  Rouget  tells  us  that 
the  greater  part  of  the  work  was  entrusted  to  his 
ablest  pupils,  David  himself  just  giving  the  finish- 
ing touches.  Gerard  was  one  of  the  first  to  examine 
the  completed  canvas,  and  the  master,  knowing 
his  old  pupil  to  be  a  man  of  sound  judgment,  was 
anxious  to  hear  his  opinion.  On  arriving  at  the 
principal  figure,  that  of  the  Emperor  in  the  act 
of  crowning  himself,  Gerard  said  : 

*'  If  you  will  permit  me,  cher  maitre,  I  must 
confess    that    the    movement    of    the    Emperor 


152     DAVID,  THE  IMPERIAL  PAINTER 

crowning  himself  and  holding  his  left  hand  on 
the  hilt  of  his  sword,  in  an  attitude  of  defiance, 
is  not  very  happy.  It  gives  me  the  impression 
of  being  exaggerated  and  theatrical,  and  will  not 
be  especially  pleasing  to  Napoleon.  Perhaps  the 
Emperor  in  the  act  of  crowning  the  Empress  would 
present  something  more  lofty  and  impressive — 
more  of  that  noble  simplicity  which  we  expect  to 
find  in  your  art,  dear  maitrey 

'^  Diable!^''  returns  David,  all  alert.  "  Do  you 
really  think  it  would  be  an  improvement,  Gerard  ?  " 

"  I  certainly  think  so,"  replies  the  ex-pupil,  with 
great  frankness. 

"  Of  course,"  objects  the  master,  "  it  will  mean 
a  big  job  to  substitute  the  proposed  figures. 
Nevertheless,  you  may  be  right,  my  friend,  and 
we  shall  see  what  can  be  done." 

"  Oh,"  exclaims  Gerard  grandly,  "  if  it  is  only  a 
matter  of  time,  let  myself  and  Barbier  help  you. 
Say  but  the " 

"  Thanks,  thanks,"  replies  David,  rather  darkly; 
"  but  I  could  not  dream  of  taking  you  from  your 
own  labours.  Rouget  and  I  can  make  any 
changes  required." 

Gerard  has  hardly  left  the  studio  when  David 
turns  to  Rouget  : 

"  What  do  you  think  of  Gerard's  idea  ?  "  he 
asks. 

"  Ma  foi,''  says  honest  Rouget,  "  I  think  it 
worth  considering." 

"  Frankly,"  agrees  David,  "  I  think  it  good 
myself.     The  fellow  may,  indeed,  be   right.     It 


PAULINE  BONAPARTE  153 

will  be  more  gallant — more  like  a  Frenchman  ; 
and,  again,  Napoleon  will  not  appear  to  be  so 
wholly  engrossed  in  himself." 

So  Rouget  set  about  removing  the  self-crowning 
figure  of  Napoleon,  and  David  replaced  it  with 
the  one  we  all  know — the  Emperor  in  the  act  of 
crowning  Josephine.  Some  days  after  the  com- 
pletion of  the  new  picture.  Princess  Pauline 
Bonaparte — the  youngest  sister — accompanied  by 
Gerard,  calls  at  the  studio.  The  Princess  is  im- 
mediately attracted  to  the  portrait  of  her  august 
brother,  and,  with  her  usual  thoughtlessness,  turns 
to  Gerard,  who  had  evidently  been  talking,  and 
says  : 

"  The  Emperor  looks  well.  It  is,  indeed,  an 
excellent  idea" — referring,  of  course,  to  the  effected 
alteration. 

We  are  hardly  surprised  to  hear,  then,  that 
David,  when  his  visitors  had  left,  turned  to 
Rouget  with  the  words  : 

"  You  see,  my  friend,  if  I  had  allowed  Gerard 
to  touch  my  canvas,  people  would  have  said  that 
he  had  done  the  whole  thing  himself." 

Nevertheless,  it  was  said  that  David  had  to 
solicit  permission  from  the  Emperor  to  effect  the 
suggested  changes — in  all  probability  the  fact, 
since  official  sanction  had  already  been  given  to 
the  first  conception  submitted.  The  Emperor, 
with  the  Genoa  portrait  in  mind,  probably,  paid 
his  painter  more  than  one  surprise  visit,  during 
which  he  commented  favourably  or  unfavourably, 
just  as  the  fancy  caught  him.     On  one  occasion 


154     DAVID,  THE  IMPERIAL  PAINTER 

he  remarked  on  the  simple  attitude  of  the  Pope 
— originally  depicted  with  his  hands  extended 
idly  on  his  knees. 

"  Pardi,  David,"  exclaims  the  blunt  soldier. 
*'  I  did  not  bring  the  Pope  all  the  way  from  Italy 
to  do  just  nothing  at  all." 

The  artist  wisely  changed  the  figure  to  the 
extent  of  showing  the  Pope  in  the  act  of  giving 
his  pontifical  blessing.  David  relates  himself  how 
both  Emperor  and  Empress,  on  another  occasion, 
paid  him  a  State  visit,  accompanied  by  chamber- 
lains, pages,  equerries  and  maids-of-honour. 
Napoleon  is  evidently  in  the  best  of  humours. 

"  What  !  "  he  cries,  "  but  this  is  life,  not  art 
— action,  action  everywhere !  How  well  my 
mother  looks,  and  how  well  the  Pope  !  You  have 
done  famously,  Monsieur  David,  and  I  am  quite 
satisfied." 

And  with  this  the  Emperor  uncovers  his  head 
to  the  great  artist.  The  Empress,  attendrie  to 
the  verge  of  tears,  then  pays  her  compliment  to 
David,  and  the  courtiers,  after  their  simian  fashion, 
proceed  to  exhaust  the  lexicon  of  eulogy. 

David  was  appointed  Officier  de  la  Legion 
d'Honneur  shortly  after  this,  when  the  Emperor, 
anxious  to  have  the  artist's  canvas  Socrates, 
asked  where  it  was.  On  being  told,  he  com- 
missioned David  to  repurchase  it,  giving  him 
carte  blanche  in  the  matter  of  price.  The  owner, 
a  M.  de  Courbeton,  declared  that  he  considered 
it  priceless,  but  since  the  Emperor  wanted  the 
work,  they  might  send  to  fetch  it.     David  reported 


A  LAST  MEETING  155 

to  Napoleon,  who,  unexpectedly  enough,  showed 
the  better  side  of  his  character. 

"It  is  evident  that  he  wishes  to  keep  your      j 
picture.     Let  him,"  he  decided. 

In  1810  a  reigning  Marquis  of  Douglas  ordered 
from  David  a  full-length  portrait  of  Napoleon. 
The  artist  accordingly  represented  the  Emperor 
in  the  uniform  of  the  Chasseurs  de  la  Garde,  in 
the  act  of  leaving  his  study  where  he  has  passed 
the  night  at  work,  as  is  indicated  by  the  candles, 
which  have  guttered  out,  as  well  as  by  a  pendule, 
which  points  to  four  o'clock ;  on  a  sofa  to  the  right 
lies  the  Imperial  sword.  This  tableau  now  belongs 
to  Prince  Roland  Bonaparte.  When  the  work  was 
submitted  to  Napoleon  before  being  dispatched 
to  Scotland,  he  warmly  expressed  his  pleasure. 

"  You    have,    indeed,    caught    me    this    time, 
David,"    he    said.     "  At   night    I   work    for   the 
welfare   of  my   subjects ;     in    the    day-time   for    ^ 
their  glory." 

The  last  meeting  of  the  painter  with  Napoleon 
took  place  during  the  Hundred  Days,  when,  after 
a  short  visit  to  the  famous  atelier,  the  Emperor 
conferred  on  David  the  insignia  of  a  Commander 
of  the  Legion  of  Honour.  It  was  also  said  that 
Napoleon  had  created  his  painter  a  Baron  of 
the  Empire,  a  tradition,  says  his  grandson,  which 
is  not  supported  by  any  documentary  evidence. 
David  was  among  those  who  voted  for  the  death 
of  Louis  XVI.,  and  it  is  certain  that  the  letters- 
patent,  if  ever  issued,  w^ere  destroyed  at  the 
Restoration  of  the  Bourbons. 


156    DAVID,  THE  IMPERIAL  PAINTER 

As  we  have  noted  elsewhere,  the  story  of  the 
Imperial  Painter  includes  that  of  Gros,  of  Gerard 
and  of  Isabey.  The  last-named  of  these  was  the 
only  one  who  displayed  any  independence  of 
character  in  his  dealings  with  Napoleon,  and 
once  refused  to  supervise  an  historical  painting 
which  dealt  with  the  Imperial  legend  until  his 
collaborating  fellow-artists  were  adequately  re- 
munerated. Napoleon  consented  to  the  increase 
of  stipend. 


CHAPTER  IX 
CANOYA  AND   NAPOLEON 


Canova  a  Great  PhUanlhropic  Spirit — Bonaparte  and 
the  Sculptor — Canova' s  Independence — The  Condition 
of  Rome — Modelling  the  First  Consul — Napoleoti  as  a 
Sculptor  s  Subject — An  Heroic  Statue  of  the  Corsican — 
Mars  and  Venus — The  Ingenue  Pauline — A  Chats- 
worth  Treasure — Canova  and  the  French  Capital — 
A  Bust  of  Marie  Louise — The  Farnese  Hercules — 
The  Pope's  Art  Patronage — The  Borghesc  Marbles 
—  The  Sculptor's  Style — Napoleon  and  Rome — The 
Corsican's  Cautiousness — Art  and  Religion — Pro- 
testants and  Catholics — Arrogance  of  the  Priests — 
Napoleon  on  Ciesar — "  The  Great  Man  of  the  Great 
People" — The  Corsican  and  the  Pope — Canova' s 
Advice  to  the  Emperor — Oligarchic  J'enice — A  Candid 
Admission — The  Day  of  IVagram — Canova  and 
Marriage — Monsieur  de  Bouclon's  Canonisation 


WITH  characteristic  enthusiasm, patriotic 
Itahan  writers  of  the  time  of  Napoleon's 
Italian  campaign,  1796-1797,  were  wont 
to  declare  that  their  celebrated  artist 
Canova  was  comparable  with  the  young  Corsican 
conqueror.  Valeva  per  certo  il  Buonaparte,  as  they 
used  to  put  it.  Memoirs  and  journals  of  those 
moving  days  indicate  very  clearly  the  exalted 
regard  in  which  the  great  sculptor  was  held  by 
every  class  of  his  countrymen,  and  it  would 
also  seem  established  that  by  his  noble  personal 
character,  by  his  activities  in  public  well-doing 
and  by  the  lofty  appeal  of  his  artistic  productions, 
Canova  has  won,  we  think,  a  permanent  claim 
to  rank  among  the  distinguished  philanthropic 
spirits  of  all  time.  It  was  not  long,  accordingly, 
before  Napoleon  determined  to  attach  this  world- 
celebrity  to  his  already  princely  suite,  and  as 
Alexander  had  willed  to  be  painted  by  Apelles, 
so  the  conqueror  of  Italy  decided  that  Canova 
should  commit  him  in  marble  to  posterity. 

The  sculptor  was  then  in  his  fortieth  year,  ex- 
hausted somewhat  by  labours  which  had  included, 
among  many  more,  his  famous  Daedalus  and 
Icarus,  executed  in  his  twenty-first  year,  his 
Theseus,  his  Cupid  and  Psyche,  his  Venus  and 
Adonis  and  his  Hercules.  Papal  munificence  and 
patronage  had  made  him  in  his  day  the  wealthiest 
artist  in  Italy,  and  already  he  entertained  thoughts 
of  retiring  to  his  country  estate  ;  all  the  more 
insistently,  too,  because  those  fervent  hopes 
which  Italian  patriots  had  placed  in  the  triumph- 

158 


A  PROUD   ARTIST  159 

ant  progress  of  Bonaparte  against  the  Austrians 
had  proved  tragically  fruitless.  Fallen  Venice, 
erstwhile  an  appanage  of  the  House  of  Habsburg, 
was  now  in  the  grasp  of  a  new  dictator,  who,  says 
de  Bouclon,  gave  his  arrogant  commands  in  a 
language  which  Venetians  had  not  even  the 
advantage  of  understanding. 

It  was  not,  however,  until  1802  that  the  Italian 
was  personally  to  meet  Bonaparte  who  had  com- 
missioned his  minister  at  Rome,  Bourrienne,  to 
inform  Canova  of  the  First  Consul's  desire  that 
the  sculptor  should  execute  his  bust.  The  terms 
mentioned  were  120,000  francs  (£4800)  and  all 
expenses.  The  artist  objected  in  the  first  place 
to  the  tone  of  Bourrienne' s  instructions  to  him- 
self as  savouring  too  obviously  of  a  master's 
order  to  a  servant,  as  he  declared.  In  the  second, 
he  had  never  forgiven  Bonaparte — an  Italian,  in 
reality — for  having,  by  the  Treaty  of  Campo- 
Formio,  reduced  Northern  Italy  to  a  condition 
which  was  hardly  less  than  bondage.  Above  all, 
the  depredations  of  Bonaparte  and  his  Generals 
in  the  treasure-houses  of  Piedmont,  Lombardy 
and  Venice  had  caused  him  a  sorrow  the  poignancy 
of  which  was  many  times  emphasised  in  the  case 
of  an  artist  who  was  at  the  same  time  an  ardent 
Italian  patriot. 

"I  do  not  refuse  to  acknowledge  the  well- 
deserved  glory  of  the  First  Consul,"  Canova  ex- 
plained to  Cacault,  the  French  Ambassador  at 
Rome,  who  added  his  entreaties  to  those  of  the 
Minister;    "he  has  rendered  great  services  to  our 


160  CANOVA  AND  NAPOLEON 

religion  and  to  our  civilisation,  both  of  which 
he  has  rescued  from  savagery.  In  my  opinion, 
he  is  greater  than  Alexander  or  Hannibal,  or  even 
Caesar.  Nevertheless,  I  cannot  help  seeing  in  him 
an  oppressor  of  Italy — a  man  equally  guilty  with 
those  sovereigns  who  once  partitioned  Poland. 
I  decline  to  execute  the  bust  of  such  a  prince." 

The  Frenchman's  reply,  although  a  model  of 
diplomatic  persuasiveness,  failed  to  move  the 
sculptor. 

"  Nature,"  said  the  adroit  ambassador,  "  has 
at  times  produced  great  men  of  different  kinds, 
and  such  great  spirits,  w^hen  contemporary,  surely 
owe  each  other  support,  affection,  loyalty. 
Alexander  and  Apelles  could  never  have  been 
enemies.  To-day  the  great  spirit  of  France  calls 
to  the  great  spirit  of  Italy." 

It  was  only  when  the  Pope,  Pius  VII.,  and 
Cardinal  Consahd,  an  especial  favourite  of  Bona- 
parte, urged  the  sculptor,  on  grounds  of  practical 
patriotism,  to  fulfil  the  First  Consul's  virtual 
command,  that  Canova  consented  to  "  obey,  as  a 
slave  obeys  his  master."  Freedom,  Canova  added, 
in  a  sonorous  phrase,  can  alone  mother  the  designs 
of  great  artists.  In  October,  1802,  he  left  Rome 
for  Paris— in  a  carriage  which  the  First  Consul  had 
especially  provided  for  the  journey. 

"  In  his  relations  with  the  man  who  saw  Europe 
trembling  at  his  feet,  Canova,"  says  M.  de  Bouclon, 
"  shewed  a  virility  of  character  equal  to  his 
talents ;  the  artist  indeed  proved  himself  as  great 
a  man  as  the   commander."     An  expression  of 


A  VISIT  TO  PARIS  161 

opinion  with  which  few  will  be  found  to  disagree, 
for  on  being  presented  to  the  First  Consul,  who  re- 
ceived him  with  the  most  gracious  condescension, 
the  Italian,  in  reply  to  inquiries  about  Rome, 
replied  : 

'^  I  ask  permission,  General,  to  speak  with  the 
truthfulness  and  candour  that  are  common  with 
me.  You  ask  news  of  Rome  :  Rome,  I  may  say, 
has  fallen  to  a  depth  proportionate  to  the  height 
which  you  yourself  have  reached.  The  victories 
which  have  placed  you  in  the  same  rank  with 
Caesar  have  been  as  disastrous  for  the  queen-city 
of  the  world,  as  they  have  proved  glorious  for 
your  own  name.  Rome  languishes  in  poverty, 
her  palaces  are  despoiled,  her  time-honoured 
treasures  are  in  the  hands  of  strangers ;  war- 
imposts  have  deprived  her  of  her  financial  re- 
sources, while  the  closing  of  her  ports,  by  your 
own  orders,  do  not  allow  her  to  repair  her  losses." 

"  I  intend,"  replied  Bonaparte,  with  unruffled 
equanimity,  "  to  restore  Rome.  As  the  well- 
wisher  of  mankind,  I  intend  also  to  be  its  bene- 
factor. In  the  meantime,  however,  what  do  you 
require  for  the  work  you  have  undertaken?" 

"  Nothing,"  said  Canova.  "  I  am  ready  to 
execute  your  orders." 

"  Good  :  then  you  shall  do  my  statue,"  replied 
Bonaparte,  and  dismissed  the  Italian. 

During  the  next  weeks  the  soldier  sat  for  one 
hour  daily  to  the  artist,  Josephine  being  present 
at  times.  True  to  his  sense  of  time-economy, 
Bonaparte  received  officials  and  signed  documents 


162  CANOVA  AND  NAPOLEON 

during  each  seance,  and  even  fingered  through 
hterary  works  which  had  just  been  pubHshed, 
while  Canova  modelled  the  features  of  his  illustri- 
ous sitter.  Politics  naturally  counted  for  some- 
thing in  the  conversations  which  took  place 
between  the  artist  and  his  model,  and  on  one 
occasion  Bonaparte  declared  it  to  have  been  his 
intention  to  remove  to  Paris  the  famous  bronzes 
of  Saint  Mark  at  Venice.  Whereupon  Canova 
bluntly  replied  : 

"  The  fall  of  that  Republic  will  darken  the  rest 
of  my  life  " — an  indication  of  his  patriotic  senti- 
ments which  did  not  displease  Bonaparte. 

His  usual  frankness  to  Napoleon  considered,  we 
may  properly  conclude  that  it  was  by  no  means 
in  the  way  of  flattery  that  the  Italian  on  one 
occasion  addressed  the  First  Consul  in  the 
following  complimentary  terms,  as  he  studied  the 
bust  he  had  just  modelled  : — 

"  Your  countenance,"  he  told  Bonaparte,  very 
correctly,  "is  so  favourable  to  the  work  of  the 
sculptor  that  if  we  were  to  discover  it  among 
ancient  remains,  it  would  appear  evident  at  once 
that  it  was  the  bust  of  one  of  the  great  men  of 
Antiquity.  If  I  have  modelled  well,  the  work 
will  be  a  success.  It  is,  however,  not  the  sort  of 
face  which  pleases  the  fair  sex.  Bonaparte  has 
too  much  of  Hannibal  in  him  to  possess  very 
much  of  Alcibiades." 

Having  accomplished  the  preliminaries  necessary 
to  his  great  work,  Canova  decided  to  return  to 
Italy  and  complete  the  statue  in  Carrara.     M.  de 


l'ltoti\'rarlt  :  urog^i 


THH   CHATSWOHTH    NAPOLEON 
Hy  Canovii 


A  COLOSSAL  STATUE  163 

Bouclon  gives  an  instance  of  tlie  linesse — some 
would  call  it  by  an  uglier  term — of  the  First 
Consul  in  connection  with  the  departure  from  Paris 
of  the  great  artist.  On  his  arrival  in  order  to 
take  leave  of  Bonaparte,  the  latter  received  him 
at  the  same  time  as  an  envoy  from  Tunis,  to 
whom,  through  the  medium  of  an  interpreter,  he 
addressed  a  solemn  harangue,  urging  the  duty 
incumbent  on  the  authorities  of  that  barbaric 
State  to  safeguard  the  interests  of  its  Christian 
subjects. 

"  Go  back  to  the  Pope,"  said  the  First  Consul, 
turning  to  Canova,  "  and  tell  him  that  you 
have  heard  me  preaching  the  perfect  liberty  of 
Christians." 

Bonaparte  understood  clearly,  comments 
Bouclon,  that  in  order  to  leave  a  favourable 
impression  of  his  character  and  personality  on 
the  mind  of  the  sculptor,  it  was  necessary  to  show 
that  he  was  a  good  Catholic.  Without  religion, 
he  could  be  no  hero  for  Canova.  Nor,  we  may 
conclude,  was  it  altogether  of  his  own  direct 
initiative  that  the  French  Ambassador  at  Rome 
gave  a  magnificent  reception  in  honour  of  the 
home-coming  artist.  The  statue  of  Bonaparte 
was  to  be  executed  after  the  style  of  the  Farnesc 
Hercules,  and  to  be  ten  feet  in  height. 

It  is  interesting  to  recall  here  a  hon  mot  of 
Canova  in  regard  to  his  gigantic  figure  of  Napoleon. 
The  sculptor  had  requisitioned  from  Carrara  an 
enormous  block  of  marble,  and  therefrom  had 
carved  his  heroic  effigy  of  the  Conqueror,  with 


164  CANOVA  AND  NAPOLEON 

the  right  arm  outstretched.  Monsieur  Artaud, 
then  secretary  of  tlie  French  Embassy,  drew 
Canova's  attention  to  the  amount  of  valuable 
material  which  must  go  to  waste  in  the  loss  of 
the  marble  which  lay  below  the  extended  arm. 

"  No,"  the  sculptor  answered  ;  "  under  the  arm 
of  Mars  I  found  my  Venus." 

For  this  Venus — which  is  now  in  Florence 
and  a  replica  of  which,  also  by  Canova,  is  at  Lans- 
downe  House — it  will  be  remembered,  Pauline 
Bonaparte  posed,  and  the  reflection  that  brother 
and  sister  were  sculpt — if  such  a  word  there  be 
— from  the  same  block  of  stone,  is  not  without 
a  certain  subtle  pathos  of  its  own,  since  each 
enmarbled  figure  must  remain,  throughout  the 
ages,  equally  an  emblem  of  the  general  mother- 
hood of  Earth  and  of  the  fleeting  tragedy  of 
kingly  grandeur.  Pauline  Bonaparte  was  not, 
it  would  seem,  more  scrupulous  in  the  domain  of 
moral  proprieties  than  her  august  brother  was 
careful  of  the  political  proprieties.  Did  not  the 
fair  Princess  once,  in  this  regard,  give  her  friends 
the  measure  of  her  sense  of  what  was  quite  proper  ? 
She  posed,  it  will  be  recollected,  for  Canova's 
Venus,  in  the  all-but-altogether,  a  fact  which  soon 
became  known  to  fair  prudes  of  the  social  world. 
One  such  candid  friend  affected  to  be  very  much 
shocked  that  Pauline  should  so  far  have  forgotten 
the  common  decencies  of  modest  womanhood  ; 

"  And  did  you  not  feel  somewhat — er — 'm — 
inconvenienced  ?  "   she  asked  rather  haltingly. 
"  Oh,  of  course,  there  was  a  fire  in  the  room,"  the 


PARIS  IN  1810  165 

Princess  explained  simply  and  without  the  least 
notion  that  she  had  done  violence  to  propriet}^ 

In  1805  Canova  paid  a  second  visit  to  Paris, 
when  he  presented  the  bust  of  1802  to  the 
Emperor,  the  larger  statue  being  delivered  only 
in  1808,  at  which  time  Napoleon  may  be  supposed 
to  have,  to  a  great  extent,  outgrown  his  first 
perfervid  cult  of  Antiquity  and  to  have  turned 
towards  a  distinctive  Napoleonic  style  in  all  art 
and  artistic  matters.  The  fact  remains  that  the 
heroic  statue  did  not  meet  with  its  great  prototype's 
approval.  And  Louis  XVIII.,  in  1815,  evinced 
no  particular  disposition  to  retain  this  somewhat 
startling  memento  of  the  triumphant  supplanter 
of  the  Bourbons.  The  French  Government 
accordingly  presented  it  to  Wellington,  who,  it 
was  well  known,  developed  after  Waterloo  a 
distinct  monomania  in  the  matter  of  Napoleonic 
effigies  and  relics.     It  is  now  at  Chatsworth. 

Canova's  last  meetings  with  Napoleon  took 
place  in  1810,  when  he  was  summoned — not 
invited — to  Paris.  On  12th  October  of  that  year. 
Marshal  Duroc  conducted  him  into  the  presence 
of  the  Emperor  who,  as  in  the  case  of  Goethe's 
presentation  at  Erfurt,  was  at  breakfast.  The 
Empress  Marie  Louise  was  also  present. 

"  You  have  grown  thin,  ^lonsieur  Canova," 
said  the  Emperor,  with  what  may  be  imagined  to 
be  a  kind  of  affected  solicitude  for  the  sculptor's 
health.  Napoleon  had  sought  through  his  Italian 
agents  to  induce  the  Italian  to  take  up  his  residence 
in  Paris,  and  the  object  of  the  artist's  present 


166  CANOVA  AND  NAPOLEON 

visit  was  the  execution  of  a  statue  of  the  Empress. 
Canova  had  declared  that,  while  anxious  to  please 
the  Emperor  in  all  possible  respects,  a  permanent 
change  in  the  scene  and  method  of  his  life  was 
absolutely  contrary  to  the  interests  of  his  art. 
These  objections  the  sculptor  renewed  in  person 
to  Napoleon  on  the  occasion  of  his  third  and  last 
visit  to  the  Emperor. 

In  vain  did  the  great  soldier  seek  to  dazzle  the 
unaffected  Italian  with  prospects  of  a  splendid 
social  and  official  role  in  the  capital  of  the  world, 
as  he  put  it  :  Canova  was  to  be  appointed  to  the 
academic  and  exclusive  Senate  ;  to  be  given  the 
high  super\dsion  of  all  the  schools  of  Art ;  he  was 
to  reside  at  the  Louvre,  where  visiting  kings  were 
customarily  lodged.  Canova  remained  unmoved, 
however,  and  declared  with  his  usual  candour, 
that,  apart  from  the  commission  of  committing 
to  marble  the  lineaments  of  Marie  Louise,  his 
principal  object  was  to  plead  the  cause  of  rapidly 
impoverishing  Italy  to  its  King. 

"  Sire,"  declared  the  artist,  "  you  may  dispose 
as  you  will  of  my  life,  for  my  services  are  always 
yours  to  command.  I  beseech  you,  nevertheless, 
to  allow  me  to  return  to  Rome,  once  the  work  for 
which  I  have  come  shall  be  completed." 

The  artist  was  dealing,  however,  with  a  supreme 
type  of  the  man  tenacious  of  his  intention,  and 
Napoleon,  who  allowed  himself  in  no  circum- 
stances to  be  easily  vanquished,  did  not  hesitate 
to  descend  to  something  like  threats  to  achieve 
his  purpose  : 


THE  RIGHTS  OF  ROME  167 

"  Here,"  he  said,  "  you  will  be  in  your  proper 
place,  since  Paris  now  houses  all  the  great 
treasures  of  the  classical  ages.  We  only  lack  the 
Farnese  Hercules,  and  even  that  we  shall  soon 
have." 

"  Your  Majesty,"  cried  the  honest  Italian,  with 
all  the  warmth  of  a  sincere  indignation,  "  at  least 
leave  something  to  our  old  Italy !  Those  ancient 
monuments  form  an  historic  chain  in  the  country's 
life  which  should  not  be  broken  by  removals  of 
our  treasure  from  either  Rome  or  Naples." 

*'  But,"  Napoleon  objected,  "  Italy  can  seek 
compensation  by  excavation  work.  I  shall  order 
some  to  be  undertaken  in  Rome.  Has  the  Pope 
spent  much  on  enterprise  of  this  kind,  tell  me  ?  " 

The  Pope,  as  the  Emperor  well  knew,  was  in 
those  days  a  poor  man  and  could  ill  spare  the 
funds  needful  for  underground  exploration  in 
search  of  art  treasures.  Canova  recalled  the  fact 
to  his  Imperial  patron,  going  on  to  indicate  his 
general  views  as  to  treasure-trove  —  somewhat 
naif,  perhaps,  considering  the  character  of  the 
Corsican. 

"  The  Roman  people,"  he  said,  "  possesses  an 
inviolable  right  to  all  monuments  found  upon  its 
own  territory,  since  these  are  in  a  certain  sense 
an  inherent  product  of  the  soil,  and  neither  the 
Romans  nor  the  Pope  may  dispose  of  what  are 
really  national  and  natural  heirlooms." 

Napoleon  here  interrupted  the  artist  to  inform 
him  that  he  had  paid  fourteen  million  francs 
(£560,000)    for   the    Borghese   Marbles    which,    it 


168  CANOVA  AND  NAPOLEON 

may  be  mentioned  in  passing,  Prince  Camillo 
had  been  forced  to  surrender,  without  the  option 
of  ransoming  them.  As  against  this  vast  sum 
Napoleon  referred  somewhat  contemptuously  to 
the  few  hundred  thousand  lire  which  the  Pope 
expended  annually  on  art  purchases,  whereupon 
Canova  correctly  reminded  the  Emperor  that  the 
Pope's  poverty  had  been  largely  forced  upon  him 
by  the  French  armies  of  invasion. 

The  conversation  then  turned  upon  the  ten-foot 
statue  which  Canova  had  delivered  in  1808,  the 
Emperor  declaring  that  he  would  have  preferred 
it  draped. 

"  God  Himself,"  Canova  replied  candidly, 
"  could  not  have  executed  a  beautiful  work  of 
art  if  he  had  tried  to  represent  your  Majesty  as 
you  are  dressed  now — in  top-boots  and  uniform. 
In  Sculpture,  as  in  all  the  other  Arts,  we  have  our 
sublime  style,  and  the  sublime  style  of  the  sculptor 
is  the  undraped  figure,  or  else  a  style  of  drapery 
which  is  proper  to  our  art — such  as  the  toga. 
With  regard  to  the  equestrian  statue  which  I  am 
now  executing  of  your  Majesty,  I  could  not  repre- 
sent your  figure  undraped,  since  my  intention  is 
to  re23resent  you  in  the  act  of  commanding  an 
army.  This  was  customary  with  the  ancient 
sculptors,  as  it  is  also  customary  with  modern 
artists." 

At  this  point  Napoleon  interrupted  the  Italian 
to  ask  him  if  the  statue  of  1808  was  being  cast  in 
bronze,  and  on  being  answered  in  the  affirmative, 
replied  that  it  was  his  intention  to  visit  Rome — 


"  MEGALOPREPCETA  "  160 

an  intention  which  was  never  carried  into  effect ; 
for  notwithstanding  his  worship  of  Antiquity  and 
all  that  Rome  represented  for  the  ancient  and 
modern  worlds,  it  was  somewhat  extraordinary 
in  Napoleon's  fate  that  he  should  never  have  seen 
the  Eternal  City.  Canova  encouraged  his  Imperial 
patron  in  this  idea  of  looking  "  with  his  own  eyes  " 
upon  the  home  of  the  Caesars,  and  readily  con- 
jured up  visions  of  Trajan's  Forum,  the  Capitol, 
the  triumphal  arches,  the  Via  Sacra,  the  Appian 
Way  and  the  many  columns  of  victory. 

"  It  was  not  only  our  political  greatness,  but 
also  our  love  of  the  grandiose  which  produced 
so  many  works  of  magnificence,"  the  sculptor 
declared  ;  and  the  words  take  the  general  reader 
down  to  Zola's  wondrous  psychological  study,  in 
Rome,  of  the  virtues  and  vices  political  and  social 
which  attend  on  the  cult  of  the  grandiose,  and  how 
this  spirit  has  haunted  the  Eternal  City  under  all 
its  mighty  masters. 

Canova  started  to  work  on  his  task  of  modelling 
a  bust  of  the  Empress  Marie  Louise  on  15th  October 
1810,  and  in  accordance  with  his  settled  plan  of 
never  allowing  his  second  Consort  to  remain  alone 
with  a  strange  man,  Napoleon  himself  attended 
each  seance  given  by  the  Empress  to  the  Italian. 
It  is  solely  in  pursuance  of  our  endeavour  to 
present  Napoleon  in  as  many  temperamental 
aspects  as  possible  that  we  emphasise  the  curious 
trait  in  the  Corsican's  character  which  forbade 
him  entertaining  the  notion  that  woman  was  at 
all  trustworthy  in  her  relations  with  the  opposite 


170  CANOVA  AND  NAPOLEON 

sex.  Monsieur  Frederic  Masson,  the  voluminous 
historian  of  the  Napoleoniad,  declares,  however, 
that  it  was  not  so  much  jealousy  that  suggested 
to  him  the  necessity  of  "  placing  the  youthful 
Empress  in  the  impossibility  of  compromising 
herself."  He  did  not  understand  woman,  says 
Masson,  although  he  was  willing  to  legislate  for 
her.  He  acted  out  of  sheer  dynastic  prudence, 
for,  as  he  told  his  Cabinet  on  one  occasion,  adultery 
is  merely  a  matter  of  a  sofa.  And  he  remained  to 
the  end  ever  of  the  opinion  that  even  an  ordinary 
tete-d-tete  between  a  man  and  a  woman  more  often 
than  not  tended  to  take  a  "  natural  "  turn. 

Somewhere  we  remember  to  have  read,  in 
authentic  memoirs,  that  the  Empress  Marie 
Louise  once  commanded  a  Court  tradesman  to 
submit  certain  designs  in  tapestry  which  had 
appealed  to  her  taste.  Accordingly  the  upholsterer 
presented  himself  in  person  at  her  Majesty's 
apartments,  w^here  we  may  suppose  him  to  have 
spent  some  time  paying  out  rolls  of  carpetry  for 
inspection  by  his  Imperial  patroness.  On  leaving 
the  rooms  of  the  Empress,  the  upholsterer  was 
pounced  upon  by  the  waiting  Emperor,  who, 
having  ascertained  the  nature  of  the  man's 
business,  dismissed  him  with  a  brutal  gesture  and 
proceeded  to  his  Consort's  apartments,  where, 
with  eyes  ablaze,  we  can  imagine  him  to  have 
demanded  of  her  the  meaning  of  her  conduct. 
The  poor  young  Empress  declared  with  tears  that 
the  visitor  was  only  an  upholsterer  ! 

"  Never  mind,  it  is  enough  that  he  was  a  mdle^ 


THE  ROMAN  CAUSE  171 

and  had  no  business  here,"  roughly  repUed 
Napoleon,  whose  jealous  mind  probably  foresaw 
the  possibility  of  his  successor  on  the  throne  being 
a  cross  between  an  upholsterer  and  a  Habsburg. 

At  the  seance  of  15th  October  the  Emperor 
was  anxious  to  hear  from  Canova  something  about 
the  climate  of  Rome. 

"Is  it  as  vmhealthy  now  as  it  was  in  the  time 
of  the  Ancients  ?  "  he  inquired. 

"  It  would  seem  so,"  replied  the  sculptor,  who 
also  remembered  to  have  read  in  Tacitus  that  on 
the  occasion  of  the  return  of  the  army  of  Vitellius 
from  Germany,  the  soldiers  fell  ill  after  bivouack- 
ing on  the  Vatican  Hill.  Napoleon  immediately 
rang  for  his  librarian,  who  brought  the  Annals. 

"  The  sickness  of  the  soldiers  proves  little," 
the  Emperor  explained  simply,  sure  of  his  expertise 
in  such  a  matter ;  "  troops  that  are  rapidly 
transported  from  one  climate  to  another  soon 
fall  ill,  but  just  as  quickly  recover." 

And  Canova  here  takes  advantage  of  the 
Emperor's  curiosity  about  Rome  to  continue  his 
advocacy  of  the  Roman  cause,  urging  the  great 
one  to  put  into  immediate  practice  those  designs 
for  the  restoration  of  the  city  which  he  was 
known  to  entertain.  Napoleon  assures  him  that 
it  is  his  intention  to  make  Rome  the  capital  of 
Italy,  incorporating  Naples  in  his  scheme  of 
unification,  an  idea  which  gives  the  sculptor  the 
opportunity  of  representing  his  views  as  to  what 
is  really  necessary  for  the  well-being  of  his  com- 
patriots.    It  is  highly  interesting   to   note   that 


172  CANOVA  AND  NAPOLEON 

Canova    attributed    much    to    the    influence    of 
ReUgion  in  Art  : 

"  Religion,  which  is  favourable  to  the  Arts," 
he  declared,  "  groAVS  weaker  and  weaker  in  my 
country.  Among  the  Egyptians,  among  the 
Greeks  and  the  Romans,  it  was  Religion  alone 
that  encouraged  Art.  The  immense  sums  which 
were  expended  on  the  erection  of  the  Pantheon, 
on  the  statue  of  Jupiter  at  Olympia,  on  that  of 
Minerva  at  Athens — all  this  was  due  to  Religion. 
With  the  Romans  it  was  the  same  :  their  works 
bear  the  seals  and  emblems  of  Religion,  and 
even  Alaric,  the  Visigoth,  respected  the  edifices 
of  Religion  as  the  real  centres  of  culture  and 
enlightenment." 

After  which  and  much  more  to  the  same  purpose, 
Canova  goes  on,  like  the  honest  partisan  he  is,  to 
declare  that  above  all  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
has  been  the  true  mother  of  Art : 

"  Sire,"  he  said,  "  the  Protestants  are  satisfied 
with  a  plain  church  and  a  Crucifix,  and  so  have 
no  need  of  beautiful  objects  of  art,  while  the 
churches  which  they  possess  have  been  erected 
and  adorned  by  Catholic  artists." 

"  He  is  quite  right,"  agreed  the  Emperor,  turn- 
ing to  his  Consort,  "  the  Protestants  have  nothing 
beautiful." 

All  of  which,  on  the  part  of  both  Canova  and 
Napoleon,  was  somewhat  in  the  nature  of  argu- 
mentation along  very  narrow  and  materialist 
grounds,  it  must  be  allowed.  The  soldier  was 
on  safer  territory  when  he  replied  to  Canova's 


PRIESTS  AND  POLITICS  173 

appeal  lor  reconciliation  with  the  Pope  by 
assuring  the  artist  of  his  willingness  to  do  so, 
but  for  the  arrogance  of  the  clergy. 

''  The  Priests,"  said  the  Emperor,  with  much 
cogency,  "  want  to  govern  everywhere,  want  to 
interfere  in  all  things,  political  as  well  as  spiritual, 
and,  like  Gregory  VII.,  are  content  with  nothing 
less  than  absolute  mastery.  The  Popes  have 
always  sought  to  keep  the  Italians  in  subjection, 
and  that,  too,  even  when  they  were  not  the 
absolute  masters  of  Rome.  What  were  the 
factions  of  the  Orsini  and  the  Colonna  tribes, 
if  not  organised  and  subsidised  intrigues  to  this 
especial  end  ?  " 

And  to  an  admission  by  Canova  that  the  Popes 
had  on  several  occasions — as  in  the  reign  of 
Alexander  VI.,  of  Julius  II.  and  of  Leo  X. — 
begun  the  military  conquest  of  Italy,  Napoleon, 
in  a  very  human  touch,  puts  his  hand  to  the  hilt 
of  his  sword,  answering  with  the  easy  nonchalance 
of  the  master  who  is  certain  of  his  subject : 

"  Only  the  sword  can  achieve  conquest — c'est 
Vepee  quHl  fauty 

"  And  not  altogether  the  sword,  Sire,"  retorts 
honest  Canova ;  "  the  shepherd's  crook — the 
crozier — is  also  an  essential.  Machiavelli  himself 
could  not  decide  which  had  contributed  most  to 
the  greatness  of  Rome — the  arms  of  Romulus  or 
the  religion  of  Numa.  It  is  true,  indeed,  that 
these  two  forces  must  march  together,  and  if 
the  Popes  have  not  distinguished  themselves  as 
warriors,  they  have  in  other  ways  written  their 


174  CANOVA  AND  NAPOLEON 

exploits  upon  the  pages  of  history,  and  often 
with  such  splendour  as  to  win  universal 
admiration." 

"  Caesar,"  cries  Napoleon,  interrupting  him, 
"  was  the  great  man  of  the  great  people  ;  and 
not  only  Caesar,  but  other  Emperors  such  as 
Titus,  Trajan,  Marcus  Aurelius.  The  Romans 
were  always  great  till  the  time  of  Constantine. 
The  Popes  made  it  their  policy  to  maintain  discord 
throughout  Italy,  and  were  always  the  first  to 
call  in  the  French  and  the  Germans  to  fight 
their  battles  against  the  people." 

This  expression  of  opinion  opens  the  way  for 
the  patriotic  sculptor  to  make  another  appeal 
for  his  beloved  Rome.  Napoleon  retorts  by 
declarmg  that  the  Vatican  had  made  it  a  settled 
policy  to  resist  him  wherever  it  could  and  how 
it  could,  and  this  notwithstanding  the  fact  that 
the  Emperor  allowed  the  French  Bishops  to 
govern  according  to  their  own  notions  in  all  that 
concerned  purely  religious  matters. 

"  Is  there  no  religion  here  in  France  ?  "  ex- 
claims the  Emperor.  "  Who  restored  the  altars  ? 
Who  protects  the  clergy  ?  I  require  my  share  of 
obedience  ;  but  I  find  the  Pope  is  altogether  pro- 
German  and  pays  most  attention  to  what  Vienna 
says."  In  saying  which  he  looked  pointedly  at 
Marie  Louise. 

"  Oh,"  retorted  the  young  Empress  bravely, 
"  I  can  assure  you  that  when  I  lived  in  Germany, 
they  used  to  say  that  the  Pope  was  altogether 
pro-French."     Napoleon    passes    over    this    un- 


OLIGARCHIC  VENICE  175 

expected  sally  and  goes  on  to  explain  that  he 
quarrelled  with  the  Pope  for  refusing  to  expel 
the  Russians  and  the  British  from  his  States. 

"  He  even  excommunicated  me,"  fumes  the 
Emperor,  "  and  does  not  seem  to  realise  that  in 
the  end,  France  may  break  off  from  Rome,  even 
as  the  English  and  Russians  broke  away  in  their 
day." 

Canova  replies  that  such  a  schism  would  be 
a  calamity  for  himself  and  his  Empire — all  the 
more  so,  says  the  plain-spoken  sculptor,  as  he  is 
about  to  become  a  father — an  honour  which  could 
not  at  that  date,  15th  October,  have  been  very 
distant,  since  the  Emperor  was  married  on 
2nd  April  1810  and  the  King  of  Rome  was  born 
on  20th  March  1811.  What  Marie  Louise  thought 
of  this  bluff  suggestion,  which  concerned  herself 
so  intimately,  we  do  not  learn.  There  is  some- 
thing that  is  far  from  displeasing,  however,  in 
this  domestic  and  rather  bourgeois  scene,  set  as 
it  were  in  a  very  desolation  of  greatness  and 
splendour,  and  Napoleon,  with  unusual  good 
humour  and  tact,  closes  the  seance  by  reminding 
Canova  that  he,  not  less  anxiously  than  the 
sculptor,  desires  to  be  on  good  terms  with  the 
Vicar  of  Christ. 

In  the  succeeding  seance  the  conversation  turned 
on  the  glories  of  oligarchic  Venice,  when  the 
Italian — who  was  of  Venetian  origin — expressed 
the  view  that  the  Republic  would  never  have 
fallen  had  the  State  placed  greater  trust  in  the 
patriotism      of     its      generals.     The      Venetian 


176  CANOVA  AND  NAPOLEON 

oligarchs  feared,  said  the  sculptor,  that  a  Caesar 
might  make  his  appearance  and  inevitably  to 
their  undoing.  Whereupon  the  Emperor  replies 
with  the  candid  enough  admission  : 

"  You  are  right.  I  once  told  the  Directory 
myself  that  if  they  continued  to  make  war,  a 
soldier  would  certainly  arise  in  France  who  must 
end  by  dictating  to  themselves." 

In  advising  Napoleon  to  safeguard  the  interests 
of  the  people  of  Florence  in  respect  of  their  art 
treasures,  the  sculptor  added  that  encouragement 
of  Italian  painters  must  redound  all  the  more  to 
the  Imperial  credit,  since  the  House  of  Bonaparte 
had  originally  sprung  from  Italy. 

"What!"  cries  the  Empress,  turning  to  her 
Consort,  "  are  you  not  a  Corsican  ?  "  and  is 
surprised  to  hear  that  the  Emperor  is  really  of 
Italian  origin,  as  Canova  says,  and  as  Napoleon 
admits  with  a  suggestion  of  some  pride.  The 
Emperor  does  not,  however,  hold  Italian  painters 
in  very  high  respect,  and  awards  the  superiority 
to  French  artists,  who,  he  says,  are  not  such 
good  colourists,  but  are  better  in  the  matter  of 
line -work. 

Downright  Canova  sees  nothing  out  of  place 
in  recommending  both  the  Emperor  and  the 
Empress  to  look  after  their  health.  Napoleon, 
he  thinks,  overdoes  it  somewhat : 

"  Que  voulez-vous,  done  ?  "  replies  the  Emperor 
good-humouredly.  "  I  have  sixty  millions  of 
subjects,  from  eight  to  nine  hundred  thousand 
soldiers,    one    hundred    thousand    cavalry.      The 


A  QUEEN  OF  CONCORD  177 

Romans  themselves  never  had  so  large  a  number. 
I  have  fought  forty  pitched  battles,  and  at 
Wagram  our  artillery  fired  a  hundred  thousand 
shot.  At  that  time,"  he  adds  gaily,  looking  at 
his  youthful  Consort,  "  this  young  lady  was  an 
Archduchess  of  Austria,  and  on  the  day  of  Wagram 
assuredly  wished  me  dead." 

"  You  are  right,"  admits  the  Empress,  with 
a  bright  laugh  ;    "I  certainly  did." 

The  great  sculptor  had  represented  Marie 
Louise  as  Concord — her  marriage  with  the  Emperor 
in  1810  had  brought  about  a  short  season  of  peace 
—and  the  result  was  pleasing  to  the  illustrious 
couple.  Canova  in  his  Memoirs  tells  us  that  at 
their  last  meeting  Napoleon  asked  if  he  was 
married. 

"  No,  Sire,"  replied  the  sculptor  simply,  "  I 
have  been  on  the  point  of  marrying  several  times, 
but  many  incidents  preserved  me  my  freedom. 
Besides,  the  fear  of  not  being  able  to  find  a  woman 
who  should  love  me  as  I  must  certainly  have 
loved  her — this  consideration  enabled  me  to 
devote  myself  to  Art  alone." 

Bouclon  pays  the  tribute  of  a  tear  to  this 
last  interview  between  the  Sculptor  and  the 
Conqueror.  They  only  met  again  in  heaven,  he 
says. 

Which  is  certainly  a  first-class  compliment  to 
Napoleon  ! 


M 


CHAPTER  X 
THE   IMPERIAL   MUSICIAN 


Napoleon  on  Music — Italian  Musicians  versus  German 
—National  lvalue  of  Opera — Napoleon  no  Musician 
— His  Plans  for  the  Musical  Art — The  Eroica  Sym- 
phony of  Beethoven — Salaries  of  Official  Singers — .1 
Surprise  for  Vatican  Celibates — La  Belle  Grassini — 
The  Southern  Temperament — Grassini  s  Disobedience 
— Proud  Monsieur  Paer — Grassini,  Wellington  and 
Napoleon — An  Intellectual  Singer 


NAPOIiEON,    according  to    the    Corre- 
spondance,  once  wrote  as  follows  to  the 
directors  of  the  Conservatoire  at  Paris 
in  regard  to  Music  : — 
"Of  all  the   Fine  Arts,  Music  is  that  which  has 
most  effect  upon  the  passions.     Consequently  it 
is   the    one   which    the    statesman    should    most 
encourage.     A  musical   composition   which   calls 
forth  the  loftiest  inspirations  has  far  more  prac- 
tical influence  than   a  reasoned   discourse   or  a 
didactical    essay,    and   touches    the    heart    more 
deeply.  ...  A    cantata  well   executed  awakens 
sympathy,  and  good-will  arises  from  sympathy." 
It  was  the  opinion  of  the  Emperor  that  the 
Italian  School  of  Music  was  pre-eminently  that 
which   by   appealing  to   the   sympathies   moved 
men    to    good    dispositions    and    to    resignation. 
The  compositions   of  Germany,  he   said,  except 
several  of  Mozart  and  a  few  others,  appealed  to 
the  quality  of  action  in  man  and  had  in  them 
some    suggestion    of   a    rebellious    note.     Never- 
theless,   when    Mehul    composed    his    oratorio, 
Joseph,  Napoleon  assured  him  that  the  best  way 
to  merit  his  favour  was  to  produce  pieces  which 
inspired  heroic  sentiments  in  the  nation  and  the 
army.     It   is   a   tribute   to   the   Corsican's   fair- 
mindedness  that  when  a  composer  of  note  pro- 
duced an  opera  v/hich  displeased  him,  owing  to  a 
"  political  "  tendency  which  he  affected  to  find 
in  it,  the  Emperor  allowed  it  to  be  played  "  until 
the  public  could  no  longer  digest  it,"  as  he  held; 
the   piece   was   soon  forgotten,  and   neither  the 

i8o 


AN  UNMI^SICAL  EAR  181 

author    nor    the    pubUc    was    deprived    of    due 
rights. 

"  The  Opera,"  he  once  told  his  Council,  "  costs 
£32,000  yearly.  Yet  it  is  necessary  to  support 
an  institution  which  flatters  the  national  vanity, 
and  we  must  subsidise  it  at  the  expense  of  other 
theatres.  .  .  .  Let  us,  therefore,  have  no  vaude- 
ville at  the  Opera,  but  only  what  is  consistent 
with  the  dignity  of  a  great  national  institution. 
.  .  .  We  might  be  induced  to  subsidise  the  Opera 
Comique  to  the  extent  of  £4000  a  year  ;  but  only 
on  the  express  condition  that  first-class  singers 
and  actors  shall  consent  to  appear." 

Like  most  men  whose  masculinity  is  the  pre- 
dominating trait  of  the  whole  character  and 
temperament,  Napoleon  was  not  a  lover  of  music 
and  had  no  very  willing  ear  for  song.  His 
secretaries,  Fain,  Chaptal,  Bourrienne,  Meneval, 
as  well  as  his  man  Constant,  all  tell  us  that  during 
his  rare  fits  of  idleness  he  was  wont  on  occasion 
to  burst  into  songful  numbers  of  the  homely  or 
provincial  kind,  and  on  the  eve  of  a  campaign  a 
frequent  musical  ditty  on  his  lips  was  that  which 
sings  of  Marlbrough  on  his  way  to  the  wars. 

"  It  was  a  strong  voice,"  says  the  body -servant 
simply,  "  but  not  pleasant  to  the  ear,  and  it  was 
his  habit  to  sing  thus  when  moving  rapidly  from 
one  room  to  another  in  his  petits  a  p  parte  merits. ''' 

Napoleon's  national  programme  was,  however, 
too  comprehensively  laid  out  to  allow  of  him 
overlooking  the  very  just  claims  of  the  musical 
world^ — in  oiu'  own  opinion  an  art  far  above  that 


182  THE  IMPERIAL  MUSICIAN 

of  the  Drama — and  provision  was  duly  made,  as 
we  have  seen,  for  opera  and  its  exponents. 
Once,  while  attending  a  pupil's  concert  at  the 
Conservatoire,  he  rewarded  the  singer  of  a  simple 
air  by  Paisiello  with  a  substantial  money  prize, 
Paisiello — the  author  of  the  famous  Chinese 
Idol  and  the  original  Barber  of  Seville,  on  which 
theme  Rossini  improved  —  having  been  his 
favourite  composer.  This  artist  he  summoned 
from  Naples  in  1802  and  assigned  to  him  the 
task  of  organising  an  Imperial  orchestra  for  the 
Tuileries,  at  an  honorarium  of  £850  yearly  and 
a  Court  carriage.  After  he  had  made  the  acquaint- 
ance of  Beethoven's  music  and  heard  what  the 
connoisseurs  had  to  say  about  that  master's 
wondrous  art,  he  set  about  making  him  the 
fashion,  as  he  himself  said,  although  his  own 
tastes  leaned  towards  the  florid  schools  of  Italy. 
Beethoven,  who  was  a  convinced  Republican  in 
politics,  admired  Napoleon  as  the  ideal  soldier 
until  he  assumed  the  purple  and,  indeed,  called 
his  famous  Eroica  symphony  by  the  title 
Napoleon  Bonaparte.  After  1804,  however,  he 
declined  politically  to  countenance  the  Corsican, 
and  at  the  latter's  death  in  1821,  on  being  asked 
to  compose  something  in  memory  of  the  great 
departed,  declared  that  he  had  already  written 
his  funeral  march,  referring  to  the  marche  funebre 
in  the  said  composition. 

His  singers  were  well  paid  as  a  rule.  Crescent! ni 
and  Brizzi  receiving  each  £1200  yearly,  besides 
perquisites  ;    while  Mesdames  Grassini  and  Paer 


MONSIEUR  MEHUL  183 

were  paid  £1500  and  £1200  respectively.  The 
Imperial  ballet  had  no  complaint  to  make  of  its 
treatment,  and  here  we  recall  that  when  Pope 
Pius  VII.  went  to  Paris  in  1804  to  crown  the 
Emperor,  an  especial  surprise  was  prepared  for 
the  Vicar  of  Christ  and  his  Cardinals,  when, 
during  a  grand  musical  representation,  a  large 
ballet  of  beautiful  coryb antic  nymphs  burst  upon 
the  stage  and  executed  a  sensational  amount  of 
"  leg-business  "  directly  over  the  heads  of  the 
astonished  Vatican  celibates. 

To  the  composer  Mehul,  who  was  not  a 
favourite  of  his,  Bonaparte  once  declared  that 
the  music  of  the  Germans  and  the  French  was 
"  scientific,"  but  without  the  sparkle  and  tuneful- 
ness of  the  Italian  schools.  Mehul,  who  evidently 
had  a  mind  of  his  own,  tried  to  defend  the  French 
exponents  on  the  ground  that  their  dramatic  ex- 
pression and  psychology  were  superior.  Napoleon 
objected  to  contradiction  and  replied  querulously  : 

"  That  is  just  you,  Mehul.  You  may  have 
a  great  reputation,  but  your  music  bores  me 
nevertheless." 

"  And  what  does  that  prove  ?  "  retorted  the 
angry  composer,  immediately  turning  on  his  heel. 

Napoleon  was,  however,  not  always  so  brutal 
with  his  musicians.  Once  Paisiello  spatchcocked 
a  beautiful  air  entitled  Sei  Morali,  by  Cimarosa, 
into  his  own  opera.  /  Ziiigari,  and  during  the 
rendering  Napoleon  could  hardly  contain  his 
enthusiasm.  Its  rendition  over,  he  turned  to 
Paisiello,  congratulating  him  : 


184  THE  IMPERIAL  MUSICIAN 

"  Ma  foi,^''  cried  the  Emperor,  "  the  man  who 
wrote  that  air  can  call  himself  the  first  composer 
in  Europe." 

"It  is  by  Cimarosa,"  explained  the  discon- 
certed Maestro. 

"  I  am  sorry,"  returned  Napoleon  sympathetic- 
ally, "  but  I  cannot  withdraw  what  I  have  said." 

On  the  morrow  his  musician-in-chief  received  a 
handsome  present. 

To  Lesueur,  the  composer  of  Les  Bardes, 
Napoleon,  on  hearing  the  opera  for  the  first 
time,  gave  the  Legion  of  Honour  and,  a  few 
days  afterwards,  a  gold  snuff-box  stuffed  with 
banknotes  worth  several  hundred  pounds. 

Zingarelli,  the  composer  of  Romeo  e  Giulietta, 
once  had  a  brush  with  the  Corsican  :  at  the  birth 
of  the  King  of  Rome,  the  musician,  then  choir- 
master at  St  Peter's,  was  given  orders  to  have  a 
Te  Deum  simg,  but  the  Maestro  refused  on  the 
ground  that  he  knew  no  King  of  Rome  but 
Pius  VII.  He  was  summoned  at  once  to  Paris, 
where  he  was  commanded  to  compose  a  mass, 
paid  in  all  some  £600  for  his  work  and  sent  home 
again.  Another  singer,  Marchesi  by  name,  during 
the  campaign  of  Italy,  was  asked  once  by  the 
youthful  General  to  sing  an  air  for  his  table 
company.  The  tenor  replied  by  telling  Bonaparte 
that  if  he  wanted  a  good  air  he  had  only  to  take 
a  turn  in  the  garden  and  get  some.  They  threw 
Marchesi  out  for  his  bad  manners  on  that  occasion  ; 
but  on  another  he  consented  to  sing,  and  Bona- 
parte and  he  made  it  up,     Crescentini,  the  famous 


SIGNORA  GRASSINI  185 

castrato,  was  paid,  as  we  have  said,  about  £1200 
yearly  as  first  singer,  besides  large  presents. 
Napoleon  would  not  allow  him  to  sing  in  public, 
and  gave  him  the  Order  of  the  Iron  Crown — an 
honour  to  which  the  existing  Knights  and  Com- 
panions took  exception,  on  the  ground  that 
Crescentini,  a  castrato,  was  not  physically  compos. 
La  belle  Grassini,  however,  took  up  the  cudgels 
on  the  singer's  behalf : 

"  What  has  his  wound  to  do  with  the  Iron 
Crown  ?  "  she  asked  plaintively.  And  Paris 
laughed. 

This  Signora  Grassini,  one  of  the  most  beautiful 
women  of  the  age,  and  inconte stably  the  first 
contralto  of  her  time,  entered  for  a  generous 
consideration  into  the  life  of  Napoleon.  He  first 
met  her  in  Italy  during  the  Italian  Campaign 
when,  according  to  his  own  account,  the  delicacy 
of  his  position — a  youth  commanding  veteran 
generals — required  from  him  the  exercise  of  all 
his  tact  and  circumspection.  He  was,  however, 
very  much  amourdche  of  the  fair  songstress, 
and,  according  to  Bourrienne,  lived  with  her 
quite  openly  in  Milan — a  charge  which  Napoleon 
refuted  at  St  Helena  when  he  recalled  that  their 
intimacy  only  began  in  1805.  La  Grassini,  he 
told,  marvelled  that  he  could  look  upon  her,  in 
that  year,  when  in  1797  he  had  refused  the 
favours  which  she  had  been  only  too  willing  to 
grant  him.  It  is  certain,  however,  that  she  was 
officially  attached  to  the  Consular  establishment 
in   1801,  and  Napoleon,  Fouche   tells,  paid   her 


186  THE  IMPERIAL  MUSICIAN 

from  his  private  purse  £600  a  month,  insisting, 
however,  that  she  should  keep  out  of  Josephine's 
way.  Ine\4tably,  Bonaparte  could  devote  but 
a  short  time  to  love  affairs,  and  Madame 
Grassini  was  clearly  one  of  those  southern  natures 
which  require  unusually  frequent  blooding.  We 
are  hardly  surprised  to  hear,  then,  that  the  lovely 
cantatrice  soon  proved  faithless.  There  was  a 
certain  Rode,  a  violinist  and  composer  in  her 
orchestra,  who  attracted  her  attention  and  suc- 
ceeded so  far  in  capturing  her  heart  that  she 
consented  to  elope  wdth  him.  Napoleon  over- 
looked this  escapade  when,  as  Emperor,  he  placed 
her  at  the  top  of  the  list  of  official  singers.  She 
was  charged  by  Napoleon  in  1810  with  refusing 
to  attend  the  rehearsals  for  an  opera,  and  Napoleon 
had  her  summoned  to  his  presence.  He  was  at 
breakfast  when  she  arrived  and  the  following 
dialogue  took  place  : 

"  Grassini,"  frowned  Napoleon,  "  you  are 
preventing  us  from  seeing  the  opera,  by  not 
attending  rehearsals.  You  keep  our  musician 
waiting." 

"  Excuse  me.  Sire,"  replies  Grassini,  "  but 
your  musician  keeps  me  waiting.  It  is  etiquette 
in  Italy  for  the  first  rehearsals  of  an  opera  to 
take  place  at  the  j^iano  of  the  Pr-rima  Donna 
Assolutissima.  Paisiello,  Cimarosa,  Zingarelli — 
all  these,  w^ho  are  quite  as  good  as  Monsieur  Paer, 
I  imagine,  waited  on  ??ie." 

"  So-ho  !  "  cries  Napoleon,  swallowing  an  oyster. 
"  What  have  you  to  say,  Monsieur  Paer  ?  " 


NAPOLEON  DECIDES  187 

The  latter  had  laid  the  charge  of  insubordmation. 

"  I  cannot,  Sire,"  explains  the  grandiloquent 
Maestro,  "  consent  to  wait  on  any  prima  donna, 
however  eminent,  however  absolute.  I  may  once 
have  done  so,  and  indeed,  often  carried  my  humble 
operas  round  to  the  residences  of  famous  cantatrices 
— like  any  common  bagman.  But,"  and  Paer 
draws  himself  up  to  the  last  line  of  his  five  foot 
two  inches,  and  throws  out  a  thirty-three  chest, 
"  that  was,  your  Majesty,  before  I  had  the  honour 
of  being  appointed  director  of  music  to  the 
Emperor  of  the  French.  I  thought.  Sire,  that 
it  was  due  to  my  dignity  to  remain  in  my  rank 
— more  befitting  the  glory  of  Fra " 

"  Ta,  ta,  ta,"  Napoleon  interrupts  testily 
"  Monsieur  Paer,  you  shall  visit  Madame  Grassini 
once.  Madame  Grassini,  you  shall  call  on 
Monsieur  Paer  twice.     Bonjour.'" 

Grassini  in  1815  became  the  mistress  of  the 
victorious  Duke  of  Wellington.  From  what  the 
chroniclers  tell  us,  she  was  not  much  impressed 
by  this  Anglo-Irish  soldier,  and  much  preferred 
her  part-countryman,  Bonaparte,  for  all  his 
brusqueness  and  unsentimentality.  Here,  how- 
ever, we  may  presume  that  the  Duke's  hope- 
less and  unrequited  infatuation  for  Madame 
Recamier  entered  into  the  jjique  of  the  singer — 
an  infatuation,  by  the  way,  which  had  once 
obsessed  Napoleon  and  which  remained,  as  in 
Wellington's  case,  also  unrequited.  Grassini  was 
a  woman  of  considerable  intellect,  a  quality  which 
rarely   distinguishes    singers,    whether    male    or 


188  THE  IMPERIAL  MUSICIAN 

female,  and  her  hons  mots  had  considerable  vogue 
in  Paris  and  Milan.  It  is  to  this  lady  is  attributed 
the  retort  made  to  Bonaparte,  who  was  accusing 
the  Italians  of  being  natural  thieves  : 

"  Non  tutti,  ma  huona  parte,''  replied  the  singer, 
who  remembered  the  depredations  of  the  young 
Conqueror  in  the  art -galleries  of  Italy. 


CHAPTER  XI 
RELIGION   OF   NAPOLEON 


JSIodern  Views  of  Religiosity — Newman  and  Manning 
— Men  and  the  Alheislic  View — Xnpoleun  after  the 
Egyptian  Campaigji—Real  Value  of  Rcligiun — The 
Corsican's  Essential  Unbelief — "An  histinct  of  Spirit- 
ualism"— A  Sound  German  View — 21ie  Chevalier 
de  Beauterne — A  Napoleonic  Press-Agent — The 
Napoleonic  Expression  —  Mans  Simian  Disposition 
— "Christ  is  no  Man" — Beauterne' s  Puerilities — 
Cardinal  Fesch  on  his  Nephew — Religion  postulates 
a  Calvary — Monsieur  de  Nor-vi?is — Napoleon's  Mind 
too  positive  for  Belief- — His  Taste  for  Religious 
Discussion — The  Murder  of  Enghien — Napoleon's 
Cynical  Explanation — His  Choiceof  National  Religions 
— His  Political  Horror  of  Atheists 


ANY  work  which  attempted  to  show  the 
temperamental  side  of  Napoleon  would 
be  incomplete  if  it  did  not  include  some 
account  of  his  attitude  towards  spiritual 
matters.  All  the  more  so,  perhaps,  at  the  present 
time,  when  the  psychologists  of  history,  in  their 
studies  of  great  men  are  becoming  accustomed  to 
attribute  given  religious  tendencies  in  their  heroes 
to  specific  qualities  of  temperament  and  soul,  rather 
than  to  a  belief  in  God.  Cardinal  Newman,  we 
are  nowadays  assured,  was  attracted  towards  the 
Church  of  Rome  more  by  the  artistic  cravings  of 
his  nature,  than  by  the  fact  that  his  studies  in 
ecclesiastical  doctrine  had  moved  him  to  the 
conviction  that  the  Anglican  Church  possessed  no 
claim  to  represent  the  Christianity  of  the  Apostolic 
age,  as  Catholics  would  assert.  Manning,  a 
strong  presumption  has  it,  saw  the  certainty  of 
a  grand  political  role  in  the  Roman  Church  with 
the  possibility  of  promotion  to  the  Papacy — he 
obtained,  indeed,  one  vote  towards  that  honour 
in  1878 — if  only  backed  by  the  support  of  Great 
Britain,  at  a  time  when  our  country  was  strengthen- 
ing her  interests  in  Southern  Europe.  And  if 
personal  ambitions  and  considerations  can  be 
assumed  to  be  the  motives  which  turned  men  like 
Manning  and  Newman  into  virtual  apostasy, 
we  may  not  implausibly  suppose  that  minor 
spirits  are  moved  to  commit  their  heresies 
because,  let  us  say,  the  vestments  of  the  Roman 
Church  suit  their  particular  style  of  beauty,  or 
because  the  so-called  Oxford  manner  is  likely  to 

190 


SAVAGE  MAN— A  DOG  191 

impress  the  female  portion  of  Roman  Catholic 
congregations — as  we  sometimes  think. 

The  definite  adoption  of  the  atheistic  view  by 
any  individual — for  it  is  to  the  credit  of  thoughtful 
men  that  they  fight  hard  against  this  final  sur- 
render of  their  first  ideal — is  easily  fixed  in  the 
history  of  great  characters,  and  it  is  clear  enough 
that  when  Bonaparte  returned  from  Egypt,  he 
had  finally  given  up  all  hope  of  a  God. 

"  I  have  seen  man  in  the  savage  state,"  he  de- 
clared, "  only  to  realise  that  he  is  no  better  than 
a  dog."  And  though  in  the  Concordat  he  adopted 
an  official  religion,  it  was  not — who  needs  to  be 
told  ? — for  any  higher  motive  than  that  which 
inspires  the  apostles  of  neo-Christianity  themselves 
— namely,  that  reHgion  is  a  handy  instrument  of 
pohtical  influence,  the  main  tendency  of  which 
is  to  keep  the  people  in  subjection.  Partisans 
have,  of  course,  adopted  the  \dew  that  Napoleon 
re-established  the  Catholic  religion  in  France 
because  of  his  inherent  belief  in  that  system — 
entirely  forgetful  of  the  fact  that  so  positive  a 
mind  as  that  of  the  Corsican  could  entertain  no 
illusions  at  all  that  men  who  are  educated  to 
accept  the  teachings  of  an  arbitrary  authority 
must  fall  far  below  the  standard  of  intellectuality 
— and,  therefore,  manhood — of  those  whose  spirit 
of  independence  is  nurtured  in  all  such  ideas 
as  are  associated  with  the  right  to  exercise 
private  judgment.  Even  IMonsieur  Masson,  whose 
capacity  for  original  research  no  one  is  likely  to 
deny,  affects  to  think  that  Napoleon  sincerely 


192  RELIGION  OF  NAPOLEON 

believed  in  the  religion  which  he  replaced  on  the 
altars  of  France — a  view  which  is  wholly  incon- 
sistent with  a  proper  understanding  of  the 
Corsican. 

Even  if  it  be  conceded  that  at  least  the  great 
soldier  was  a  Deist,  we  are  unlikely  to  find 
much  satisfaction  in  this  fact,  considering  the 
definitions  which  the  Deists  give  of  their  God — 
an  impersonal  influence,  a  conscious  force,  notions 
not  so  low  as  Pantheism  and  yet  not  so  high 
as  Theism.  Chateaubriand  tells  us  that  even  in 
his  attacks  upon  the  Church,  Napoleon  showed 
that  he  possessed  "an  instinct  of  spiritualism" 
and  that  his  "  irritations  against  the  Church  are 
not  of  a  philosophic  nature,  but  bear  the  impress 
of  a  religious  character."  Such  opinions  we  may 
take  to  mean  that  Napoleon  did  not  overlook  the 
educative  and  ethical  value  of  a  religion  which 
Macaulay  could  speak  of  as  the  greatest  monu- 
ment of  human  policy  that  the  world  has  known. 
And  if  in  his  last  will  and  testament  the  Corsican 
declared  himself  to  die  in  the  Catholic  faith,  we 
may  be  certain  that  dynastic  reasons  counted  for 
much  in  that  somewhat  belated  auto-da-fe. 

A  German  writer.  Doctor  Max  Messer,  declares 
that  Napoleon  was  the  first  great  apostle  of  a 
typically  modern  philosophy — namely,  that  of 
religious  individualism,  in  which  the  idea  of  God 
assumes  the  proportions  not  so  much  of  an  idea 
as  of  a  sentiment.  Like  a  true  temperamentalist, 
says  the  German,  in  effect.  Napoleon  had  his 
own   God,   just   as   Schiller    had   his ;    the    poet 


M.  DE  BEAUTERNE  193 

maintaining  that  Christ  was  an  liistorical  necessity 
and  that  civiHsation  would  not  have  been  possible 
had  not  some  philanthropic  instinct  in  the  great 
spirits  of  later  antiquity  enabled  them  to  see  the 
possibilities  for  human  culture  inherent  in  the  life 
of  Christ  and  his  teachings. 

"  A  State  religion  became,  therefore,"  says 
Messer,  "  equally  an  historical  necessity  for 
Napoleon ;  and  as  Schiller  regretted  the  dis- 
appearance of  the  ancient  gods,  so  Napoleon  felt 
himself  forced  to  express,  as  in  1798  on  the  Nile, 
his  admiration  for  certain  qualities  of  the  Moslem 
religion,  and  in  1811  for  those  of  the  Protestant." 

In  the  year  1840,  when  Louis  Napoleon  was 
seeking  to  advance  his  pretensions  to  the  throne 
of  his  illustrious  uncle,  there  appeared  a  work 
which  purported  to  show  that  the  founder  of 
the  dynasty  had  based  his  ultimate  political 
conceptions — the  unification  of  all  the  States  of 
Europe  under  one  head — to  a  large  extent  on  the 
idea  that  without  the  aid  of  Papalistic  Christianity 
no  system  of  universal  government,  such  as 
Napoleon  aspired  to,  would  have  been  possible. 
The  author  of  this  brochure  was  a  certain  Chevalier 
de  Beauterne,  and  if  he  had  been  an  ascetic 
Christian  Brother,  he  could  hardly  have  shown 
a  more  child-like  loyalty  to  his  own  Church,  or  a 
greater  naivete  in  setting  forth  the  belief  in  its 
doctrines,  which  he  ascribed  to  a  man  whose  mind 
was  of  so  positive  a  kind  and  method  that  we 
may  be  certain  it  accepted  nothing  in  the  way 
of  hypothesis  that  did  not  immediately  concern 


194  RELIGION  OF  NAPOLEON 

itself  with  the  practical  business  of  his  own  vast 
career. 

The  object  which  the  publication  of  this  book 
had  in  view  did  not,  we  feel  sure,  deceive  people 
in  those  days,  and  it  was  soon  recognised  to 
be  a  frank  appeal,  with  ulterior  motives,  to  the 
essential  religiosity  which  supposedly  underlies 
the  Latin  character.  Belonging  though  it  did 
to  the  class  of  political  tricks  which  the  French 
very  aptly  describe  as  procedes  connus,  or  known 
processes,  it  nevertheless  had  a  great  vogue  in  its 
time,  and  we  think  small  blame  to  those  who  made 
use  of  so  plausible  if  impossible  an  hypothesis 
as  the  religious  sentiments  of  Napoleon  in  order 
to  further  their  own  aims — all  the  more  so  that 
we  fail  ourselves  to  see  how  a  working  or  enduring 
morality  can  be  developed  in  young  minds  by 
any  code  which  rejects  the  idea  of  a  Supreme 
Being.  The  purely  ethical  religions  have  certainly 
not  succeeded  in  achieving  a  high  standard  of 
virtue  or  civilisation,  so  far  as  we  have  studied. 

All  this  does  not,  however,  establish  the  case 
for  the  religiosity  of  the  Corsican,  and  it  is  our 
conviction  that  his  whole  life  provided  a  negation 
of  his  having  regarded  religion  as  anything  but 
what  it  is — namely,  an  instrument  of  virtual  ob- 
scurantism when  its  application  is  made  to  over- 
docile  minds.  Excessive  emphasis  has  been  laid, 
we  think,  by  commentators  on  the  fact  that,  as 
it  is  said,  his  recorded  views  on  religion,  given  by 
Gourgaud,  Montholon,  Bertrand  and  others,  all 
bear  the  impress  of  Napoleon's  own  particular 


IMITATIVE  MAN  195 

style  of  phrasing.  The  arts  of  simianism  and 
psittacism  are  not,  however,  confined  to  the  spoken 
language,  and  modern  periodical  literature  shows  us 
often  enough  that  the  gift  of  happy  expression  can 
be  independent  of  even  rudimentary  scholarship. 
A  visit  to  one  of  our  law-courts,  or  to  our  churches 
or  to  the  House  of  Commons  itself,  will  indicate 
very  quickly  how  much  of  the  essential  parrot 
there  is  left  in  the  race,  just  as  a  superficial 
observation  of  the  social  climbing  classes  shows 
how  near  to  the  monkey  is  imitative  man. 

In  the  expressions  of  opinion,  when  in  exile, 
which  we  have  of  Napoleon,  there  is  a  pronounced 
similarity  of  style  which  disconcerts  as  often  as 
it  convinces,  and  if  the  Corsican  was  the  complex 
and  many-sided  character  that  we  are  taught  to 
believe  him,  then  those  who  chronicled  his  sayings 
must  have  been  strangely  fortunate  in  finding  him 
so  often  in  the  same  mood.  If,  in  any  case,  the 
staccato  and  laconic  style  was  Napoleon's  style, 
we  may  be  very  certain  that  among  so  imitative 
a  race  as  the  French,  it  soon  became  a  fashion, 
and  accordingly  we  find  but  little  grounds  for 
attributing  any  particular  phrase  to  Napoleon 
simply  because  it  appears  to  be  expressed  in  a 
style  which  was  said  to  have  been  peculiar  to  him. 
Monsieur  de  Beauterne  may  be  right  in  his  opinion 
that  the  fond  des  pensees  and  the  nerf  dii  raisonne- 
ment  are  typically  Napoleonic  ;  nevertheless  into 
more  than  one  opinion  to  which  the  Chevalier 
attaches  much  accoimt,  we  cannot  but  see  that 
Beauterne  has  read  a  meaning  which  Napoleon 


196  RELIGION  OF  NAPOLEON 

could  not  at  all  have  entertained.     He  is  alleged, 
for  example,  to  have  said  once  : 

"  I  know  men,  and  I  declare  to  you  that  Jesus 
Christ  is  no  man  " — a  statement  which,  if  it  was 
ever  made  by  the  master  positivist,  must  be  taken 
to  mean  that  Christ  was  so  pronounced  a  type 
of  the  mystic  as  to  have  ceased  to  retain  the 
ordinary  qualities  and  characteristics  of  a  man. 
Napoleon,    who,    Madame   de    Stael    assures    us, 
was  accustomed  to  look  upon  ordinary  beings  as 
"  simple  facts,"   would   assuredly  not  have   ad- 
mitted that  he  was  himself  a  man  in  the  ordinary 
sense,   and  we  know  that  even  as  late  as  3rd 
December    1804,  he   could   tell    Decres   that   he 
envied  Alexander  the  Great  the  popular  ignorance 
of  an  age  in  which  the  Macedonian  could  success- 
fully claim  to  be  the  son  of  Jupiter.     Nor,  in  this 
connection,  must  we  overlook  a  common  retort  of 
his  to  Josephine  when  the  latter  accused  him  of 
infidelity  :    "I  am  not  a  man  as  other  men,  and 
ordinary  laws  do  not  apply  to  such  a  being  as 
myself." 

At  all  events  we  declare  our  total  inability  to 
accept  a  phrase  which  he  is  said  to  have  addressed 
to  Bertrand  when  the  latter  assured  him  that  he 
could  not  see  the  divinity  of  Christ  : 

"  Well,"  Napoleon  is  alleged  to  have  said, 
"  if  you  cannot  see  that  Christ  is  the  Son  of  God, 
then  I  was  wrong  to  make  you  a  general." 

At  Rivoli  we  cannot  imagine  Bonaparte  pausing 
to  think  if  Massena  possessed,  or  not,  a  religion ; 
or  Soult,  at  Austerlitz ;  or  Ney,  at  the  head  of  his 


CARDINAL  FESCH  197 

five  thousand  cavaliers  on  the  slope  of  La  Belle 
Alliance.  Beauterne  is  full  of  puerilities  of  this 
kind,  and  in  a  later  brochure  based  upon  his  book, 
and  bearing  the  imprimatur  of  the  See  of  Tournai, 
we  are  supplied  with  just  such  illustrations  as  are 
supposed  to  move  the  first  communicant's  mind 
to  fervour.  Thus  :  Bonaparte  embracing  the 
Vicar  of  Christ  in  a  kind  of  filial  rapture  ;  or 
Napoleon  standing  on  the  altar  of  the  Tuileries 
chapel,  his  sword  buckled,  his  legs  wide  apart, 
arms  folded,  and  not  looking  particularly  impres- 
sive as  he  says  to  some  cleric-looking  person  in 
a  soutane  :  "  Desormais  nous  aurons  la  messe 
ici  tous  les  jours." 

Beauterne — who  was  this  gentleman  by  the 
way  ?  We  can  find  no  trace  of  him  in  the  bio- 
graphies. May  he  not  have  been  a  kind  of  literary 
John  Doe  ? — Beauterne,  we  repeat,  was,  or  pre- 
tended to  be,  so  lacking  in  an  appreciation  of  the 
Napoleonic  reclame  as  to  present  as  conclusive 
the  opinions  of  that  old  sinner  Cardinal  Fesch 
concerning  the  Christian  sentiments  of  his  illustri- 
ous nephew.  Cardinal  Fesch,  we  may  believe, 
was  hardly  less  a  part  of  Napoleon's  system  than 
were  his  marshals,  or  his  minister  of  police,  or 
than  Schulmeister.  Indeed  had  Pius  VII.  been 
translated  between  1809  and  1814,  we  reasonably 
presume  that  Fesch  would  have  been  imposed  on 
the  College  of  Cardinals  as  the  successor  of  Pius. 
While  talking  about  Napoleon's  Christianity,  the 
Cardinal,  says  Beauterne,  could  not  control  his 
feelings,   and   two   great   tears   rolled   down   his 


198  RELIGION  OF  NAPOLEON 

cheeks  ;  after  which  Fesch  goes  on  to  tell  how 
the  young  Napoleon  was  of  so  religious  a  turn  of 
mind  that,  like  Rawdon  Crawley  of  the  Heavies, 
he  once  had  thoughts  of  taking  up  the  Church  as 
a  profession !  And,  adds  the  prelatical  ex-army 
contractor.  Napoleon  chose  the  day  of  the  Assump- 
tion for  his  jour  de  fete — as  if  the  great  Corsican 
had  made  special  arrangements  for  being  born 
on  the  fifteenth  day  of  August.  And  then  the 
Cardinal  deplores  that  he  has  lost  a  letter  of 
two  pages  in  which  the  youthful  Bonaparte 
tells  him  of  his  unalterable  devotion  to  the  faith 
of  his  fathers,  and  how  the  young  Corsican  once 
expressed  his  ambition  to  go  to  Pondichery  to 
convert  the  natives  !  Quoting  the  naif  Beauteme 
we  get : 

"  Before  the  battle  of  Marengo,"  said  Fesch, 
"I  met  my  nephew,  by  arrangement,  who  told 
me  that  if  he  won,  he  should  return  to  France 
and  re-establish  Religion  in  the  country.  He  then 
asked  me  what  Cardinals  he  was  likely  to  meet  in 
Italy,  and  on  my  mentioning  one  or  two,  he  told 
me  to  go  on  at  once  and  tell  them  that  he  intended 
to  re-establish  Catholicism  in  France — but  only 
within  certain  limits.  As  for  the  philosophers — his 
sword,  he  said,  would  deal  with  those  gentry.  He 
could  have  had  permanent  peace  ^vith  the  English 
had  he  consented  to  establish  Protestantism  in 
France  as  the  national  religion,  but  Napoleon 
would  listen  to  none  of  England's  overtures  and 
replied  that  he  intended  to  re-establish  the 
Catholic  Church  in  France  solely  because  it  was 


TALLEYRAND'S  RETORT  199 

the  true  religion.  It  was  suggested  to  him  that  he 
should  create  a  religion  of  his  own,  and  Napoleon 
replied  that  in  order  to  establish  a  new  religion, 
it  was  absolutely  necessary  for  the  founder  to 
ascend  Mount  Calvary." 

This  last  statement  is  too  obviously  suggested 
by   Talleyrand's    answer,    in    1801,    to   a    Theo-^ 
philanthropist    cleric    who   complained    that   his 
new  religion  did  not  seem  to  make  much  headway. 

"  Monsieur,"  replied  the  ex-Bishop,  "  Chris- 
tianity was  successful  in  finding  One  who  was 
willing  to  die  for  His  faith.  Perhaps  if  you  were 
to  die  for  yours.  Sir,  success  might  attend  on 
your  movement." 

The  Theophilanthropist's  fervour  did  not,  how- 
ever, carry  him  to  extremes  of  this  painful  nature. 

Partisans  have  exhausted  themselves,  again,  in 
seeking  to  point  to  Napoleon's  pious  dispositions 
in  the  face  of  death,  forgetful  that  Napoleon's 
ambition  was  restricted  at  St  Helena  to  the 
continuance  of  his  name  and  the  survival  of  his 
dynasty.  To  have  died  the  atheist— the  potential 
sun-worshipper  he  had  so  often  declared  himself 
to  be  to  his  intimates — would  have  been  the 
destruction  of  all  hope  of  his  family  reconquering 
his  throne  in  Catholic  France,  and  no  one  knew 
this  better  than  himself.  Nor  does  ^lonsieur 
de  Norvins  —  also  a  pro-Bonapartist  writer  — 
impress  us  very  much  when  he  tells  us,  in  that 
grandiloquent  style  which  marked  the  Romantic 
age  in  France,  that  Napoleon  was  too  penetrated 
with  the  sentiment  of  his  own  greatness  not  to 


200  RELIGION  OF  NAPOLEON 

I  believe  in  the  immortalitj''  of  the  Soul.  It  must 
^  have  been  writers  of  this  type  who  invented  such 
scenes  as  that  in  which  Napoleon  is  represented 
as  addressing  himself  to  a  group  of  philosophic 
doubters  among  his  generals,  on  the  way  to 
Egypt,  pointing  a  fo^  hand  upward,  contemplating 
the  starry  firmafnent  afid  saying  in  his  high- 
-pitched voice  : 

"  Who  made  all  that,  gentlemen — who  ?  " 
4  M.  Thiers,  too,  when  he  treats  us  to  a  long 
(N^;;^  discourse  on  the  certainty  that  Napoleon's  dis- 
position turned  him  to  religious  ideas,  appears 
to  overlook  the  fact  that  religion  of  this  kind, 
being  natural  religion,  is  no  religion  at  all  in  the 
opinion  of  orthodox  Christian  teachers,  who  insist 
on  practical  virtues  and  take  but  little  account 
of  virtues  which  are  simply  the  expression  of 
a  personal  or  natural  disposition.  Thiers  even 
cites  as  a  token  of  Bonaparte's  religiosity  the  fact 
that  he  discussed  willingly  all  subjects  connected 
•with  philosophy  and  creeds — a  token,  we  think 
ourselves,  which,  being  positive  evidence  of  a 
man's  striving  after  a  finality  that  is  impossible, 
also  settles  the  case  for  his  essential  unbelief. 
He  is  a  sorry  being,  in  any  case,  who  is  not  moved 
by  the  story  of  philosophic  or  theological  thought, 
and  it  would  be  surprising,  moreover,  if  so  political 
a  mind  as  that  of  Bonaparte  had  not  early  seized 
upon  the  ethnical  element  in  the  importance  of 
religion. 

With  all  the  best  intentions  towards  religious 
belief,  we  cannot  admit  that  its  advocates  prove 


AN  ESSENTIAL  ATHEIST  201 

Napoleon  to  have  looked  upon  it  as  anything 
higher  than  a  forceful  aid  to  government,  or,  as 
he  termed  it  himself,  a  good  instrument  of  order 
and  tranquillity  in  the  community.  And  with 
regard  to  the  alleged  discourses  on  the  subject 
with  which  he  is  said  to  have  killed  time  at  St 
Helena  and  elsewhere,  we  are  finally  and  firmly 
convinced  that  they  are  nearly  all  suspect  and  that 
the  sentiments  attributed  to  him  there  were  subse- 
quently invented  by  men  whose  interest  it  was  to 
serve  the  cause  of  Louis  Napoleon. 
.  The  man  who  sanctioned  the  murder  of  Enghien 
was  one  who  had  long  ceased  to  entertain  the  notion 
that  there  existed  a  Supreme  Judge  of  human 
acts  ;  while  the  words  with  which  he  excused  that 
atrocious  act  showed  that  whether  he  had  ever 
believed  in  one  or  not,  he  already  placed  himself  on 
the  level  of  divinity.  The  Almighty  Himself  could 
not  have  explained  the  killing  of  Enghien  with  a 
fuller  sense  of  being  the  supreme  dispenser  of  life 
and  death :  t 

"  I  have  shed  blood,"  said  Napoleon  ;  "  but 
entirely  without  anger,  and  simply  because  I  hold 
that  bloodshed  enters  of  necessity  into  political 
combinations."  ^ 

Milton's  Satan  never  placed  his  self-sufficiency    : 
on  a  higher  altar  than  this.     No ;   the  picture  of    -i- 
Napoleon  in  Paradise  can  never  satisfy   us,  nor  ^ 
any   suggestion   that   he   believed   in   one,    even  ^ 
though   Monsieur  de  Beauterne  assures  us  that  "i- 
his  hero's  spirit  is  already  there.  — V    ^ 

"  ^Vhen  I  took  over  the  direction  of  affairs  in     , 


202  RELIGION  OF  NAPOLEON 

France,"  said  Napoleon  once  at  St  Helena,  "  I 
had  already  formed  my  opinion  as  regards  the 
importance  of  religion  in  a  State,  and  had  firmly 
decided  to  re-estabhsh  it.  Nevertheless,  I  found 
myself  forced  to  do  battle  with  many  prejudices 
before  I  could  take  the  final  decision  to  make 
Catholicism  the  State  religion,  and  there  were 
many  in  my  Council  who  urged  me  to  make  France 
Protestant. 

"  '  Faisons-nous  protestants,'  they  said,  '  and 
we  shall  thus  get  rid  of  the  difficulty  of  the 
Concordat.' 

"  Yet  by  making  Protestantism  the  national 
faith,  I  should  only  have  split  France  into  two 
camps  and   created   endless   trouble  for   myself 
and  the  country.     Catholicism,  on  the  contrary, 
assured  me  the  support  of  the  Pope,  and  in  view  of 
our  fortunate  military  situation  in  Italy,  I  had  no 
doubt  that  I  could  easily  bend  the  Vatican  to  my 
will — ^that  is  to   say,  I   should   entirely   control 
the  vast  influence  exercised  by  the  Chief  of  the 
Christian  world  !     Although  modern  philosophers 
have  sought  to  show  that  Catholicism  is  anti- 
democratic,    and     so     have     encouraged     anti- 
clericalism,  and  even  religious  persecution,  I  am 
convinced  that  there  is  no  religion  which  adapts 
itself  so  well  as  Catholicism  to  the  different  forms 
of  government,  or  which  is  so  favourable  to  a 
democratic  or  a  republican  State. 

"  It  is  not  the  religious  fanatics  whom  we  have 
to  fear,  but  the  atheists  perverted  by  false 
teachings.     There  is  as  much  difference  between 


EQUALITY  FOR  ALL  203 

the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  and  the  infamous  re- 
ligion of  Gregory  VII.  as  there  is  between  Heaven 
and  Hell.  The  teaching  of  Bossuet  is  the  one  we 
must  follow,  and  with  such  a  spiritual  director 
we  are  not  liable  to  go  wrong.  The  moral  of  the 
Gospel  is  equality,  and  so  is  most  favourable  to 
Republican  government." 


CHAPTER  XII 
THE   IMPERIAL   EDUCATIONIST 


Action,  the  Royal  QuaUiij  in  Man — The  Necessity  oj 
Religious  Training — Dislike  of  Precocity  in  Children 
— Geography  and  History  essential  in  Early  ^  ears 
— Li7ignisfic  Talent  no  Test  of  Mentality — Are  the 
Classics  valuable? — "Bending  the  Mind  to  Labour" 
—  Faille  of  Geometrical  Studies — The  Age  of  Puberty 
and  its  Mystic  Revolutions — The  Imperial  Catechism 
— Monsieur  de  Portalis,  imperiomaniac — Napoleon 
a?id  God — So7ne  Questions  and  Anstvers — Contempt 
for  Ordinary  Intelligence — Cardinal  Capraras  Rule — 
Napoleon  and  his  Opportunity — The  Super-Caligula 


ACTION — action  !  He  who  acts  is  master. 
Activity  is  the  royal  quality  in  man. 
Train  the  child  to  it  and  let  its  first 
sports  be  a  prelude  to  its  exercises. 
Graduate  both  so  as  to  give  the  child  agility  and 
strength." 

Here  we  may  presume  the  real  Napoleon  to 
have  spoken,  when  he  drew  up  his  system  of 
education  for  the  little  King  of  Rome,  then  in  his 
third  year.  His  insistence  on  the  cultivation  of 
energy  and  activity  runs  through  the  whole 
curriculum  which  he  thought  to  be  most  suitable 
for  the  proper  rearing  of  every  youth,  and  in  so 
far  provides  us  with  a  considerable  insight  into  the 
soul  and  character  of  this  arch-toiler  among  men. 
Like  the  practical  being  the  Corsican  was,  he  in- 
sisted, too,  on  the  necessity  of  religious  education 
as  a  good  preparation  for  ethical  instruction, 
though  in  this  respect  we  may  presume  that  he 
regarded  such  training  from  the  point  of  view  of 
the  political  ruler  who  wants  to  find  his  subjects 
docile  and  amenable  to  laws  of  order. 

"  Man  requires  a  future,"  he  said  in  a  phrase 
addressed  obviously  to  the  clerics,  "  and  whatever 
some  may  say,  it  is  necessary  to  him.  So  then, 
every  religion  professing  to  teach  the  existence  of 
God  ought  to  be  protected,  and  all  the  more  so 
since  the  God  of  a  nation  arrived  at  maturity  is 
no  longer  the  God  of  its  youth.  When  men  were 
savage  their  God  was  a  savage  and  wrathful  God  ; 
when  they  grew  humane  their  God  became  gentle. 
Time  reveals  the  true  God— the  God  who  forgives." 

206 


THE  GIFT  OF  TONGUES  20T 

The  Emperor  was  no  lover  of  precocity  in 
children,  a  fact  which  we  can  easily  co-ordinate 
with  his  dislike  of  the  super-woman,  or  precieuse. 
Precocious  wit  and  imagination  in  forward 
children  —  a  quality  which  often  pleases  very 
foolish  mothers,  by  the  way — are  not  to  be 
tolerated,  in  Napoleon's  opinion,  for  "  the  mind 
that  outruns  the  body  has  no  solid  basis  :  the 
child  grows  dull  or  remains  feeble."  In  all  educa- 
tion of  children  the  first  process  must  be  to 
exercise  the  memory  and  the  body  ;  and  as  an 
aid  to  the  cultivation  of  memory  he  suggested 
Geography  and  History,  in  which  studies  both  the 
eye  and  the  ear  receive  their  meed  of  exercise. 
Of  foreign  languages — in  which  he  was  not  himself 
especially  apt — he  very  properly  thought  little  as 
contributing  to  the  formation  of  a  strong  or  pro- 
found intellect ;  a  view  which  modern  education- 
ists are  showing  some  disposition  to  adopt,  since 
the  acquisition  of  a  language  must  be  based  for 
the  greater  part  on  a  gift  of  what  the  French  well 
term  psittacisme  (Greek  psittakos,  a  parrot),  or 
parrotry,  and  we  cannot  disagree  with  Napoleon, 
who  maintained  that  the  gift  of  many  tongues 
rarely  distinguishes  a  man  of  profound  learning 
or  even  real  ability. 

"It  is  the  business  of  nurses  to  begin  them,'* 
said  Napoleon,  "  and  of  valets  de  chambre  to 
go  on  with  them.  It  may  even  be  questioned 
whether  the  language  of  Virgil  and  Horace  should 
enter  into  the  plan  of  an  education  " — a  view 
which  we  are  sorry  to  hear  expressed,  although 


208       THE  IMPERIAL  EDUCATIONIST 

we  find  ourselves  leaning  towards  his  blunt 
opinion  that  "  the  facility  for  acquiring  languages, 
which  so  many  fools  admire,  is  at  bottom  little 
better  than  a  brevet  of  incapacity  and  ignorance." 

The  great  object  of  the  teacher  in  the  early 
stages  of  instruction^-about  the  age  of  ten — 
should  be,  in  Napoleon's  opinion,  to  "  bend  the 
mind  towards  labour,  and  if  the  master  succeeds 
in  giving  his  pupil  an  appetite  for  work  the  future 
is  safe."  As  might  be  expected,  he  placed  much 
faith  in  the  intellectual  training  to  be  gained  by 
the  study  of  Geometry,  which  (he  held)  exercises 
at  once  the  judgment,  the  memory  and  the 
imagination  by  its  processes  and  figures.  Its 
graduated  progress  from  what  is  simple  to  what 
is  complicated,  makes  it  mental  food  for  every 
age  and  puts  it  within  the  reach  of  every  intellect, 
he  said.  Children  of  all  capacities,  from  ten  to 
thirteen,  may  begin  its  elements,  and  by  means 
of  these  we  may  sound  their  capacities.  Like 
the  penetrating  observer  of  human  nature  that  he 
was,  the  great  soldier  added  the  following  profound 
truth  which  our  pedagogues,  present  as  well  as 
past,  seem  foolishly  inclined  to  overlook  : — 

"  From  thirteen  to  sixteen  the  blood  is  en- 
riched and  heated  ;  desires  arise  ;  images  wander 
through  the  brain  and  the  thoughts  begin  to  clothe 
themselves.  This  is  the  dawn  of  the  imagination, 
and  the  moment  for  bridling  and  guiding  it 
properly  is  also  the  moment  for  giving  the  studies 
of  the  pupil  a  new  direction  and  different  matter 
to  feed  upon." 


THE  AGE  OF  PUBERTY  209 

Wisdom  which  cannot,  in  truth,  be  too  strongly 
emphasised. 

According  to  Napoleon,  the  age  of  puberty  is 
that  in  which  the  poets,  versifiers  and  artists  are 
to  be  distinguished  and  separated  from  the 
mathematicians  and  the  yOuths  of  practical  mind 
— a  theory  which  cannot  fail  to  give  unfortunate 
students  of  the  classic  Gepp  much  matter  for 
retrospective  thought. 

If  anything,  in  our  view,  is  calculated  to  demon- 
strate the  essential  atheism  of  Napoleon,  we  think 
it  is  to  be  found  in  the  extraordinary  publication, 
meant  for  general  use  in  French  schools,  issued 
under  the  Emperor's  auspices,  and  entitled  The 
Imperial  Catechism.  By  the  Organic  Articles  of 
the  Concordat,  it  was  enacted  that  there  should 
be  only  one  liturgy  and  one  catechism  for  the 
churches  of  France,  and  in  order  to  settle  once  and 
for  all  the  Erastian  condition  of  the  ecclesiastical 
power.  Napoleon  set  his  bureau  de  reclame  to  the 
task  of  putting  God  and  the  Clergy  in  their  proper 
place.  In  pursuance  of  this  idea,  he  had  The 
Imperial  Catechism  published  —  with  the  im- 
primatur of  the  helpless  Papal  Legate — and  issued 
in  1806.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  the 
object  of  this  Catechism  was  to  rear  the  rising 
generation  in  Imperial  ideas  and  to  assure  the 
future  of  Napoleon's  dynasty.  With  his  custom- 
ary forethought  in  all  political  adventures,  the 
Emperor,  before  issuing  his  new  book  of  religious 
instruction,  had  the  opinion  voiced,  through 
his   agent   Portalis,   that  the   large   diversity  in 


210       THE  IMPERIAL  EDUCATIONIST 

existing  catechisms  was  wholly  detrimental  to 
the  proper  spiritual  formation  of  French  children. 
By  basing  his  new  catechism  on  that  of  Bossuet, 
as  to  its  essential  religious  ideas,  he  was  able  to 
say  that  it  was  but  a  second  edition  of  the  old 
work  of  the  Bishop  of  Meaux.  The  book  was 
indeed  published  under  the  saintly  protection  of 
that  long-departed  prelate. 

Monsieur  de  Portalis,  who  was  the  chief  Imperial 
agent  in  this  matter,  was  not,  it  would  seem,  less 
unscrupulous  than  his  master  in  mishandling 
religious  teachings,  or  in  reading  them  to  his  own 
purposes,  and  accordingly  decided  to  execute  his 
work  in  such  a  fashion  that  the  new  generation 
should  have  no  doubts  whatever  as  to  the  relative 
importance  of  Napoleon  and  the  Almighty.  A 
letter  which  he  addressed  to  the  Emperor  in  this 
connection  is  worth  quoting ;  it  is  dated  13th 
February  1806  : 

"  .  .  .  At  this  moment  the  institutions  of 
France  may  be  said  to  have  returned  to  their 
normal  condition,  and  since  Frenchmen  have  the 
happiness  of  living  under  the  greatest  of  princes, 
I  think  that  the  time  has  come  to  bring  to  your 
Majesty's  notice  that  part  of  the  Catechism  which 
deals  with  the  relations  of  the  subject  to  his 
sovereign.  Before  the  new  order  of  things  much 
had  been  said  on  this  matter,  and  teachers  spoke 
in  very  vague  terms  of  the  submission  which  men 
owed  to  the  chiefs  of  the  State  according  to  the 
words  of  the  Gospel.  It  seems  to  me.  Sire,  that 
the  time  has  gone  for  indulging  in  generalities  of 


MONSIEUR  DE  PORTALIS  211 

such  a  nature,  and  it  is  now  necessary  to  attach 
the  conscience  of  the  people  to  the  august  person 
of  Your  Majesty,  whose  rule  and  whose  victories 
are  guarantees  of  the  safety  and  the  prosperity  of 
France.  To  recommend  in  a  general  way  subjects 
to  obey  their  sovereigns  would  not,  in  the  present 
instance,  be  directing  their  obedience  towards  its 
proper  end.  Ordinary  precepts  may  suffice  in 
ordinary  times,  more  especially  when  men  are 
living  in  an  order  of  things  which  has  existed  for 
a  long  time.  But  in  these  days  the  word  sovereign 
is  but  a  vague  expression  which  each  person  de- 
fines according  to  his  own  lights  and  prejudices. 
I  have  therefore  thought  it  necessary  to  inculcate 
new  precepts  with  especial  reference  to  Your 
Majesty's  person.  To  do  so  will  remove  all  am- 
biguity by  fixing  all  hearts  and  minds  on  him  who 
alone  ought  to  be  the  object  of  their  veneration." 
Portalis  did  not  confine  his  loyal  solicitude  to 
the  person  of  the  Emperor,  but  drew  up  his  Cate- 
chism in  such  a  way  that  its  doctrines  must  also 
form  an  enduring  appeal  on  behalf  of  Napoleon's 
successors  on  the  throne.  The  Emperor,  we  are 
sorry — if  perhaps  not  surprised — to  hear,  read 
this  letter  with  great  pleasure  ;  with  such  obvious 
pleasure,  indeed,  that  we  are  inclined  to  suspect 
that  Portalis  had  been  commanded  to  address  it 
according  to  the  terms  stated.  In  the  original 
catechism  of  Bossuet  that  prelate  had  written  but 
a  small  paragraph  which  emphasised  the  subject's 
obligation  of  obedience  to  the  sovereign,  and  the 
sovereign   in   those  days  had  been  Louis  XIV. 


212       THE  IMPERIAL  EDUCATIONIST 

Napoleon  was  not  so  easily  satisfied,  however. 
Obedience  to  the  authorities  had  by  1806  become 
the  corner-stone  of  the  new  Imperial  fabric,  and 
here  is  wdiat  we  find  in  the  new  book  of  religious 
instruction  : 

Question  :  Is  submission  to  the  Government  of 
France  a  dogma  of  the  Church  ? 

Answer :  Yes.  The  Gospel  teaches  that  he 
who  disobeys  the  State  disobeys  God.  The 
Church  imposes  upon  us  very  especial  obligations 
towards  the  Government  of  France,  which  protects 
religion  and  the  Church.  It  commands  us  to 
love  it,  to  cherish  it  and  to  be  ready  to  make  all 
possible  sacrifices  for  its  service. 

This  particular  passage  the  official  theologians 
objected  to,  on  the  ground  that  it  could  not  be 
reconciled  with  the  claim  of  the  Catholic  or 
Universal  Church  to  be  the  impartial  mother  of 
all  nations.  The  Emperor  agreed,  but  was,  never- 
theless, insistent  that  his  name  should  count  for 
something  in  the  Catechism,  and  accordingly  a 
new  dogma  was  interpolated  after  the  following 
extraordinary  fashion  : — 

Question:  What  are  the  duties  of  Christians 
towards  the  princes  who  rule  them,  and,  in  par- 
ticular, what  are  our  obhgations  to  Napoleon  I., 
our  Emperor  ? 

Answer-  :  Christians  OAve  to  the  princes  under 
whom  they  live,  and  we  owe  in  particular  to  our 
Emperor,  Napoleon  I.,  love,  respect,  obedience, 
loyalty,  Military  Service,  the  taxes  necessary 
for  the  defence  of  the  Empire  and  his  throne, 


"  MYSELF  AND  GOD  "  213 

and  fervent  and  frequent  prayers  for  his  prosperity 
and  happiness  and  that  of  the  State. 

Question  :  Why  are  we  bound  to  fulfil  all  these 
obligations  towards  our  Emperor  ? 

Answer  :  In  the  first  place,  because  God,  who 
creates  empires  and  distributes  them  according 
to  His  will,  by  endowing  our  Emperor  with 
genius,  whether  for  Peace  or  War,  has  given  him 
to  us  for  our  Sovereign  Lord,  and  has  appointed 
him  the  instrument  of  His  power  upon  Earth. 
Therefore  when  we  honour  and  serve  our  Emperor, 
we  are  also  honouring  and  serving  God  Himself. 
In  the  second  place,  because  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
by  His  precept  and  example,  has  taught  us  what 
we  owe  to  our  sovereign.  He  was  born  in  the 
time  of  Augustus  and  obeyed  the  laws  of  Augustus ; 
He  paid  the  required  tax ;  He  ordered  us  to 
give  to  God  what  belongs  to  God  and  to  give  to 
Caesar  what  belongs  to  Caesar. 

Question :  Are  there  not  some  very  special 
reasons  which  must  strongly  attach  us  to  Napoleon 
I.,  our  Emperor  ? 

Answer  :  Yes,  because  he  is  the  man  whom  God 
has  raised  up  in  difficult  circumstances  in  order 
to  re-establish  the  national  Faith  of  our  fathers, 
and  to  be  its  protector.  He  has  brought  back 
public  order  by  his  profound  wisdom  and  energy  ; 
he  defends  the  State  with  his  mighty  arm  ;  he 
has  become  the  anointed  of  the  Lord  through 
the  consecration  which  he  has  received  from  the 
Sovereign  Pontiff,  the  chief  of  the  Universal 
Church. 


214       THE  IMPERIAL  EDUCATIONIST 

Question  :  What  are  we  to  think  of  those  who 
fail  in  their  duties  towards  our  Emperor  ? 

Answer  :  According  to  St  Paul,  the  Apostle, 
such  people  would  be  capable  of  resisting  God 
Himself  and  His  established  order,  and  are 
deserving  of  eternal  damnation. 

Question  :  The  obligations  which  we  owe  to 
our  Emperor,  do  they  not  likewise  bind  us 
towards  his  legitimate  successors  according  to 
the  established  Constitution  of  the  Empire  ? 

Answer  :  Most  certainly  they  do  ;  for  we  read 
in  the  Scripture  that  God,  Lord  of  Heaven  and 
Earth,  by  an  act  of  His  supreme  will,  and  by  virtue 
of  His  fore-knowledge,  grants  kingdoms  not  only 
to  one  person  in  particular,  but  also  to  that 
person's  family. 

Question :  What  is  our  duty  towards  our 
magistrates  ? 

Answer  :  We  must  honour,  respect  and  obey 
them,  and  this  because  they  are  the  depositaries 
of  the  authority  of  our  Emperor. 

Question  :  What  other  obligation  are  we  bound 
to  observe  towards  our  rulers  ? 

Answer  :  We  are  forbidden  to  disobey  them, 
to  do  them  harm,  or  to  speak  badly  about 
them. 

The  indefatigable  Portalis  did  not  allow  his 
imperiomania  to  stop  here.  In  a  further  letter 
addressed  to  Napoleon,  he  suggests  that  many 
reforms  could  be  effected  in  the  ritual,  in  the 
police  regulations  and  bye-laws  governing  burials, 


CARDINAL  CAPRARA  215 

marriages,  the  celebration  of  feasts,  the  perform- 
ance of  sacramental  rites — all  of  which,  he  says, 
are  somewhat  behind  the  times  and  fail  of  accord- 
ance with  our  new  ways. 

It  would  serve  little  purpose  to  discuss  the 
question  whether  the  Cardinal-Legate,  Caprara, 
then  the  agent  of  the  Vatican  in  Paris,  was,  as 
has  been  asserted,  a  venal  spirit  wholly  under  the 
influence  of  the  Corsican,  and  equally  as  atheistic 
as  Napoleon  himself,  as  was  said.  The  Catechism, 
it  is  certain,  honoured  neither  those  who  drew 
it  up,  nor  the  sovereign  who  allowed  it  to  be 
published,  and  remains  a  lasting  monument  to 
Napoleon's  contempt  for  the  intelligence  of  com- 
moner mankind. 

In  a  few  weeks  after  the  publication  of  this 
Catechism,  with  the  Legate's  imprimatur,  the 
Emperor  purchased  a  palace  at  Bologna  from 
Caprara  and  paid  the  prelate's  very  heavy  debts. 
This  in  addition  to  having  appointed  him  Arch- 
bishop of  Milan,  thus  drawing  the  Cardinal  within 
the  sphere  of  the  intimate  influence  of  the  King  of 
Italy,  as  the  Corsican  had  also  become.  Napoleon 
was  the  last  man  in  the  world  to  neglect  an  advan- 
tage, and  in  making  the  extravagant  claims  which 
were  advanced  in  the  Imperial  Catechism,  fully 
realised,  we  may  suppose,  that  his  pretensions, 
being  not  less  arrogant  than  those  which  the 
Church  frequently  claimed  for  the  Vicars  of  Christ, 
could  hardly  be  rejected  by  a  Pope  who  virtually 
bespoke  the  politico-spiritual  supremacy  of  the 
world.     And    accordingly   we   are   not   surprised 


216       THE  IMPERIAL  EDUCATIONIST 

to  learn  that  the  majority  of  the  French  Bishops 
• — practically  a  band  of  Galileans  7nalgre  eux — 
appended  the  sigillum  of  their  approval  to  an 
apotheosis  which  must  have  moved  even  Caligula 
himself  to  mirth  and  mockery. 


CHAPTER   XIII 
NAPOLEON   AND   JOURNALISM 

The  Press  after  Brumaire — Difference  bettvecn  French 
and  English  Journalism —  Wholesale  Suppression  of 
Sheets — Liberty  of  the  Press  ceases — Newspaper 
Morality — Napoleon  s  Journalistic  Precis — Monsieur 
Fievee,  Chief  Censor — Le  Moniteur  becomes  Official 
Organ — Napoleon's  Private  Paper — Value  of  Official 
Organs — Government's  Duty  to  the  Nation — Lucus  a 
non  Lucendo — A  Newspaper  without  News — Monsieur 
Suard,  Editor — Le  Journal  des  Debats — Napoleon 
and  Fractious  Editors — Le  Mercurc  de  France — 
Monsieur  de  Chateaubriand — Napoleon's  own  Press 
Agency — Bengnot  and  the  Emperor — Les  Ideologues 
— La  Route  d'Antibes — The  Adaptable  Sub-Editor — 
The  Hundred  Days — Napoleon  s  Opinion  of  the  Press 
— Caustic  Remarks  on  Journalists  and  Writers — His 
Earliest  Venture  as  a  Newspaper-Onmer — TheCourrier 
de  T Amnee — Napoleon's  Personal  Corps  of  Special 
Correspondents 


THE  great  day  of  Brumaire,  by  making 
Bonaparte  master  of  the  destinies  of 
France,  put  a  term  to  whatever  Uberty 
the  Press  had  up  till  then  enjoyed. 
Many  conditions  combined  to  play  into  the  hands 
of  the  new  Dictator  in  respect  of  all  matters 
connected  with  popular  liberties,  and  not  the 
least  of  these  was  the  national  weariness  which 
looked,  with  perhaps  an  excusable  enough  resent- 
ment, on  all  movements  which  were  likely  to 
protract  the  general  unrest  attending  upon  the 
aftermath  of  the  Revolution.  The  difference 
between  French  journalism  and  English  journalism, 
then  as  now,  has  always  lain  in  the  fact  that  the 
former  possesses  a  greater  literary  quality,  and 
that  therefore  the  personal  equation  counts  for  a 
larger  force  in  French  newspapers.  Accordingly 
the  fine  work  of  the  ideologue  superabounded 
in  the  critical  Press  of  Paris,  and  this  was 
altogether  opposed  to  Bonaparte's  manner  of 
considering  the  functions  of  a  public  institution. 
Shortly  after  the  establishment  of  the  Consul- 
ate, accordingly,  Bonaparte,  of  his  own  initiative, 
issued  the  famous  edict  of  17th  January  1800, 
suppressing  all  sheets  in  Paris  which  possessed 
a  political  bearing,  with  the  exception  of  thirteen. 
The  principal  among  the  survivors  were  the 
Moniteur,  the  Journal  des  Debats,  the  Journal  de 
Paris,  the  Gazette  de  France.  This  drastic  enact- 
ment also  went  into  operation  in  the  Departments. 
Until  that  date  there  had  been  seventy-two 
political  papers  in  Paris  and  about  three  times 

218 


THE  PRESS  OF  PARIS  219 

that  number  in  the  provinces.  The  Constitution 
of  February,  1800,  made  next  to  no  mention  of  the 
liberty  of  the  Press,  and,  as  we  have  said,  patriots 
and  philosophers  were  too  wearied  by  the  factious 
conditions  of  the  Revolutionary  decades  to  care 
much  about  the  fate  of  an  institution  which,  for  all 
its  potential  might,  neither  politics  nor  society 
had  ever  taken  au  grand  serieux.  The  lot  of  the 
dispossessed  journalists  excited,  therefore,  not  the 
least  concern,  and  it  is  recorded  by  Felix  Rocquain 
that  the  general  public  saw  with  not  a  little 
Schadenfreude  the  removal  to  obscurity  of  a  class 
of  individuals  who  were  notorious  lovers  of  the 
limelight. 

In  April  of  this  first  Consular  year,  Bonaparte 
instructed  Fouch^  to  supply  him  with  a  report 
concerning  the  character  and  disposition  of  the         / 
various  editors  left   in  charge  of  the   surviving 
thirteen  sheets.     It  was  urged  that  their  morality  / 

should  be  beyond  any  suspicion  of  being  cor- 
ruptible— their  political  morality,  obviously.  A 
special  department  was  established  in  the  Ad- 
ministration, the  object  of  which  was  to  keep 
watch  upon  the  newspaper  offices,  and  it  is 
interesting  to  note  that  this  censorship  was 
entrusted  to  prominent  military  men.  The  First 
Consul  was  daily  supplied — Baron  Fain  has  told 
us  much  anent  this^with  a  precis  of  all  that  the 
newspapers  were  talking  about,  in  much  the  same 
way  as  an  important  Minister  is  supplied  by 
his  personal  secretary  with  a  tabular  digest  of 
the   morning's  mail.     The    zeal   of   Fouche   was 


220      NAPOLEON  AND  JOURNALISM 

consequently  not  less  under  observation  than  the 
editors  upon  whom  he  was  charged  to  report,  an 
important  consideration  for  Bonaparte,  since  his 
minister  of  police— an  ex-Christian  Brother — 
was  supposed  to  represent  the  old  Jacobin  or 
extreme  Revolutionary  faction.  And  so,  in  order 
effectively  to  watch  the  watchman,  the  Consul 
appointed  Fievee,  formerly  editor  of  the  Gazette 
de  France,  his  private  adviser  on  all  journalistic 
matters.  Fievee,  it  may  be  observed,  remains 
best  kno^vn  to  us  by  an  aphorism  which  he  is  said 
to  have  fathered  :  "  Politics,  even  in  representa- 
tive governments,  is  what  we  do  not  talk  about."  ^ 
Ordinary  newspaper  readers  received  only  a  part 
of  the  truth  from  their  sheets  ;  but  Bonaparte 
received  the  whole  truth  from  Fievee,  and  accord- 
ingly knew  what,  and  what  not,  to  suppress. 
Madame  de  Genlis  and  that  Barere,  on  whom 
Macaulay  lavished  much  of  his  high-class  jour- 
nalese, were  also  paid  spies  who  reported  on  the 
editors. 

The  Moniteur  became  the  official  organ  of 
the  Consular  political  establishment,  although 
a  Bulletin  de  Paris  was  also  established  as  an 
official  sheet  of  the  First  Consul,  the  articles  of 
which  were  written  in  his  own  cabinet,  under  his 
eyes,  and  often  at  his  dictation.  Despite  this 
high  patronage,  however,  the  Bulletin  had  no 
circulation,  and  Fievee,  an  expert  journalist, 
explained  the  reason  of  this  to  Bonaparte. 

^  We  quote  this  aphorism  simply,  and  without  professing  to  see 
either  its  wit  or  its  wisdom. 


BRITISH  JOURNALISM  221 

"  Official  organs,"  he  said,  "  are  not  worth  the 
paper  they  are  written  on,  and  they  are  not  a 
month  old  before  everyone  knows  who  edits  them, 
as  well  as  for  whom  and  for  what  cause  they  are 
published.  Intelligent  Frenchmen  will  con- 
sequently not  read  them,  more  especially  those 
who  are  looking  for  political  guidance.  They  are 
read  mainly  by  such  as  are  anxious  to  know  just 
what  the  Government  t] jinks,  and  once  readers 
find  that  official  editors  are  seeking  to  form  their 
political  views,  they  revolt  and  go  into  direct 
opposition." 

Fievee  goes  on  to  point  out  that  so  long  as 
governments  fail  to  disclose  their  programmes 
frankly  to  the  nation,  a  wholesome  and  educative 
type  of  journalism  is  not  possible,  and  then 
addresses  himself  to  the  moral  taught  by  British 
journalism. 

"  Nothing,"  he  says,  "  is  easier  than  for  the 
English  writer  to  choose  his  side,  for  nothing 
fundamental  is  ever  in  discussion  in  that  country, 
and  all  men  know  there  what  are  the  issues  in 
dispute.  But  what  is  not  in  dispute  in  poor 
France  ?  We  are  supposed  to  be  a  Republic, 
which  is  not  true  ;  we  speak  of  liberty,  yet  have 
no  liberty  ;  it  is  said  that  the  Revolution  has 
ended,  when  another  is  really  about  to  start.  No 
man  tells  the  First  Consul  what  he  really  thinks. 
Does  the  First  Consul  tell  anyone  what  he  thinks  ? 
All  this  militates  against  a  proper  presentment 
of  public  and  governmental  opinion." 

In  pursuance  of  his  policy  of  reducing  the  Press 


222      NAPOLEON  AND  JOURNALISM 

to  the  least  possible  significance  as  an  institutional 
factor  in  the  life  of  France,  Bonaparte  adopted  a 
system  of  withholding  from  all  but  the  official 
organs  the  various  bulletins  and  police  notices 
and  reports  which  constituted,  as  "  nouvelles  et 
fails  divers  " — town  talk  and  life's  little  incidents 
— almost  the  only  resource  of  the  dailies  of  that 
time.  And  the  iron  finality  of  his  determination 
to  discourage  anything  like  individual  enterprise 
on  the  part  of  a  newspaper  may  be  divined  from 
the  following  extraordinary  commandment,  writ 
rubric  in  the  office  tablets  : — 

"  Whenever  any  news  unfavourable  to  the 
Government  becomes  the  subject  of  rumour,  it 
must  not  be  published  until  it  is  found  by  verifica- 
tion that  it  is  already  known  to  everybody." 

There  was  short  shrift,  as  may  be  imagined, 
for  all  who  failed  in  their  observance  of  the  new 
Press  regulations.  The  Democratic  Republican  of 
Audi  complains  of  the  high  prices  of  cereals  at  a 
time  when  Lucien  Bonaparte  and  his  brother 
Joseph  were  attempting  to  effect  a  corner  in  the 
grain  market.  Lucien  was  then  Minister  of  the 
Interior  and  gives  his  instructions  as  follows  : — 

"It  is  of  the  first  consequence  to  destroy 
immediately  so  dangerous  an  instrument  in  the 
hands  of  agitators.  I  order  you,  therefore,  to 
suppress  this  paper  without  any  consideration 
whatsoever  of  loss  or  hurt  to  either  editor  or 
shareholders,  and  to  arrest  anyone  wiio  dares  to 
show  any  sign  of  opposition  to  the  authorities." 

Even    ordinary    literary    criticism    became    a 


M.  SUARD,  REDACTEUR  223 

perilous  pitfall  for  outspoken  writers  who  thought 
that  their  functions  did  not  stop  at  aesthetic 
discussions  about  style  and  art.  The  Ami  des 
Lois  was  suppressed  because  a  facetious  reporter 
indulged  his  humour  by  making  sarcastic  remarks 
about  the  appearance  and  attitudes  of  a  certain 
"  meeting  of  men  who  honour  the  Republic "  ; 
and  even  the  Academy  was  to  be  treated  as  if  its 
deliberations  were  as  necessary  to  the  lives  of  man- 
kind as  the  Immortals  invariably  thought  them. 

One  of  the  papers  which  had  been  authorised 
on  the  establishment  of  the  Consulate  was  the 
Publiciste,  whose  editor  Suard  was  a  friend  of 
Madame  de  Stael.  This  publication  refused  to 
print  the  official  apology  for  the  murder  of  the 
Due  d'Enghien,  and  in  the  letter  in  which  Suard 
took  up  his  stand  of  honourable  opposition  to 
Bonaparte,  he  wrote,  in  effect : 

"  I  am  now  sixty  years  of  age  and,  my  character 
not  ha\ing  weakened  with  the  years,  I  mean  to 
finish  my  career  as  I  have  run  it.  The  coup 
d'etat  to  which  you  ask  me  to  subscribe  I  regard 
as  an  act  of  violence  to  all  my  notions  of  equity 
and  political  justice.  ]My  second  objection  is  to 
the  interference  with  properly  constituted  legal 
authorities  in  the  trial  of  the  Due  d'Enghien,  a 
summary  act  which  puts  the  personal  safety  of 
all  citizens  at  the  mercy  of  arbitrary  officials.  I 
decline,  therefore,  to  write  against  my  convictions." 

The  paper  was  given  a  new  editor  who  received 
one-sixth  of  the  revenue  of  the  sheet  as  salary, 
the    Government   taking   another  one-sixth,   the 


224      NAPOLEON  AND  JOURNALISM 

remaining  two-thirds  going  to  Suard  and  the 
syndicate.  The  Journal  des  Debats  managed, 
by  a  pohcy  of  tactful  "  trimming,"  as  the 
Americans  put  it,  to  build  up  a  prosperous  cir- 
culation, during  the  Empire,  its  net  revenue 
amounting  to  £8000  a  year.  This  publication 
nevertheless  voiced  its  abhorrence  of  the  crime  of 
Vincennes. 

When  the  Empire  was  established  in  1804, 
Napoleon  in  his  supplementary  Constitution, 
known  as  the  Senatus-Consultum,  devoted  a  few 
clauses  to  a  mention  of  the  "  liberty  of  the  Press," 
seven  Senators  being  appointed  to  safeguard  the 
integrity  of  the  new  privileges  granted  to  the 
Fourth  Estate.  For  all  this,  the  French  Press 
of  the  new  regime  possessed  no  broader  liberties 
than  that  of  the  Consulate,  and  Napoleon  could 
still  continue  as  of  old  to  talk  of  "  my  Press." 
From  the  farther  ends  of  Europe  his  letters  to 
Fouche  regarding  the  newspapers  followed  swiftly 
upon  each  other,  and  the  minister  of  police  was 
often  urged  to  make  his  editors  talk  as  they 
were  told  to  talk,  or  else  try  some  other  line  of 
commerce. 

"  Je  les  reduirai  a  sept,"  Napoleon  threatened, 
"  et  je  conserverai,  non  ceux  qui  me  loueront — 
je  n'ai  pas  besoin  de  leurs  eloges — mais  ceux  qui 
auront  la  touche  male  et  le  cceur  frangais  et  qui 
montreront  un  veritable  attachement  pour  moi 
et  mon  peuple." 

A  distinguished  contemporary  tells  us  in  one 
of  his  works  that  he  knows  of  a  famous  American 


THE  BfPERIAL  IDEA  225 

newspaper  proprietor  who  is  accustomed  to  speak 
of  his  writers  as  prostitutes.  Evidently  Napoleon's 
opinion  of  a  race  of  but  poorly  appreciated  and 
inadequately  rewarded  workers  was  on  much  the 
same  plane,  for  in  his  letters  to  Otranto  we  find 
such  expressions  as  : 

"  Let  X,  the  editor,  know  that  I  intend  to 
settle  his  account." 

Or :  "  birds  of  evil  augury,  how  comes  it  that 
they  only  prophesy  calamities  so  far  ahead  ?  " 

Or :  "  it  is  a  bit  too  much  of  a  farce  to  have 
a  Press  which  has  the  disadvantage  of  freedom 
without  any  of  its  advantages." 

Or :  "  all  articles,  little  as  well  as  big,  must  be 
good  articles  " — meaning  Imperial — "  and  I  am 
not  the  man  to  allow  journalists  to  draw  high 
profits  from  papers  that  do  me  nothing  but 
harm." 

In  October,  1805,  the  Emperor  forced  the  Journal 
des  Debats  to  change  its  title  to  Journcd  de  VEmjnre, 
and  annexed  £3300  of  its  net  revenue  of  £8000, 
with  the  unexpected  result,  for  Napoleon,  that 
the  circulation  of  the  paper  increased  by  half. 

The  famous  Mercure  de  France  and  the 
Puhliciste  also  become  the  objects  of  Napoleon's 
anger : 

"  Monsieur  le  due  d'Otrante,"  he  writes,  "  I 
have  read  an  article  in  the  Puhliciste  which 
appears  to  be  a  frank  write-up  for  the  Spanish 
monks.  Give  the  editor  to  understand  that  he 
nms  the  risk  of  having  his  paper  suppressed.  Let 
him  insert  articles  which  depict  the  ferocity  of 


226      NAPOLEON  AND  JOURNALISM 

these  monks,  their  ignorance  and  their  ineffable 
hetise.''^ 

It  was  in  the  Mercure  that  appeared  some  of 
the  first  fragments  of  Chateaubriand's  Genie 
du  Christianisme.  The  author,  who  had  thrown 
up  a  diplomatic  secretaryship,  it  will  be  remem- 
bered, as  a  protest  against  the  murder  of  Enghien, 
made  no  attempt  to  disguise  his  opinion  that  a 
reincarnation  of  Nero  had  taken  place,  but  that 
Tacitus  having  also  come  back  to  earth,  the  reign 
of  the  tyrant  could  not  be  for  long.  Napoleon's 
answer  was  the  appointment  of  Legouve  as  censor 
of  the  Mercure,  and  Guizot  remarks  hereanent : 

"  Even  Napoleon  could  not  allow  it  to  be  said 
that  his  future  historian  would  appear  during  his 
reign,  and  so  had  to  take  the  reputation  of  Nero 
under  his  protection." 

The  new  Tacitus  was,  of  course,  Chateaubriand. 

In  1809  the  Emperor  gave  orders  that  from 
that  time  onward,  only  one  newspaper  in  each 
department  should  be  allowed  to  deal  with 
political  matters.  The  prefect  would,  of  course, 
decide  as  to  the  choice  of  the  organ.  By  1811 
there  were  only  four  authorised  papers  in  Paris 
- — the  Moniteur,  the  Journal  de  VEmpire,  the 
Gazette  de  France  and  the  Journal  de  Paris.  The 
Mercure  and  the  Puhliciste  had  been  summarily 
suppressed.  By  a  decree  dated  from  Compiegne, 
17th  September  1811,  all  existing  newspapers 
were  confiscated  as  being  really  the  property  of 
the  Government,  the  entire  plant  of  the  Debats 
{Journal  de  VEmpire)  being  taken  over,  and  the 


"  CES  IDEOLOGUES  !  "  227 

syndicate  reorganised  to  the  drastic  extent  that 
even  the  proprietors  were  not  included  among  the 
new  shareholders.  Neither  were  they  indemnified. 
From  that  time  till  1814,  the  Press  was  simply 
the  voice  of  the  Master. 

Need  the  modern  world  then  be  surprised  to 
hear,  in  our  own  age  of  personal  reclmne,  that 
Napoleon,  over  a  century  ago,  had  founded  his 
own  personal  press  agency  known  as  the  bureau 
de  Vesprit  public,  or  agency  for  promoting  public 
opinion.  Was  not  Caesar's  Acta  Diurna — a  kind 
of  daily  record— supposed  to  be  a  bit  of  frank 
press-agency  work  compiled  on  behalf  of  the 
authorities  ?  Napoleon's  bureau  sought  to  prop- 
agate among  the  authorised  newspapers  all  and 
everything  in  the  way  of  ideas  that  the  Emperor 
thought  necessary  for  the  support  of  his  throne, 
and  was  an  obvious  attempt  at  just  such  organised 
obscurantism  as  Berlin  has  made  us  so  familiar 
with  during  the  Great  War  of  1914. 

In  another  place  we  have  shown  how  Madame 
de  Stael  came  under  the  ban  of  Imperial  policies 
because  that  illustrious  woman  had  dared  to  raise 
her  voice  in  the  cause  of  human  liberty.  "It  is 
to  ideology,"  cried  the  Emperor,  "  and  to  all 
such  tenebreuse  metaphysique  that  France  has 
owed  all  her  misfortunes."  Beugnot  suggests  that 
there  are  certain  periods  when  it  is  necessary 
that  ideas  should  be  expressed. 

"  I  understand  you,"  roars  the  irate  Emperor; 
"  yes,  that  is  just  one  of  the  mottoes  of  your 
school." 


228      NAPOLEON  AND  JOURNALISM 

"  I  have  no  other  school,"  repHes  the  courtly 
Beugnot,  "  but  the  school  of  the  Emperor." 

"  That  is  only  a  phrase — nothing  more !  You 
are  of  the  same  school  of  ideologues  as  Roederer, 
Regnault  and  my  brother  Louis  and  Fontanes. 
No,  I  forgot — Fontanes  belongs  to  another  school 
of  idiots.  But,"  and  Napoleon  touches  the  hilt 
of  his  sword,  "  so  long  as  this  hangs  at  my  side, 
you  shall  know  none  of  those  liberties  after 
which  your  soul  aspires — not  even,  IMonsieur 
Beugnot,  the  liberty  of  giving  those  pretty  little 
addresses  of  yours  in  Parliament." 

Chateaubriand's  famous  pamphlet,  Bonaparte 
et  les  Bourbons,  appeared  when  the  Royalists  w^ere 
moving  all  they  could  to  effect  a  compromise 
between  the  Imperial  and  their  own  factions,  and 
was,  on  account  of  its  violence  and  hatred  of 
Napoleon,  a  source  of  much  annoyance  to  those 
who  w^ere  seeking  to  bring  all  parties  to  an 
understanding.  In  a  certain  degree  it  may  be 
said  to  have  laid  the  lines  of  the  long  intrigue 
which  was  to  bring  back  Bonaparte  from  Elba, 
since  its  tone  provided  the  inspiration  for  the 
scores  of  revived  sheets  which  leaped  into  light 
and  forced  the  authorities  to  be  hardly  less  in- 
tolerant of  the  newspapers  than  Bonaparte  had 
been  in  his  time.  "  In  the  interests  of  public 
tranquillity,"  declared  Fouche,  "we  must  muzzle 
these  hydrophobes  of  the  Fourth  Estate."  And 
the  soundest  minds  in  France  favoured  the 
exercise  of  the  censorship  at  that  critical  hour. 

The  manner  in  which  the  newspapers  of  the  day 


ELBA— ANTIBES— PARIS  229 

reported  the  triumphant  advance  of  Napoleon, 
after  his  landing  at  Antibes,  on  the  return  from 
Elba,  has  often  been  cited  as  providing  a  very- 
succinct  commentary  on  the  weakness  of  ordinary- 
human  nature  in  the  presence  of  the  wonderful. 
The  successive  newspaper  bulletins  read  : 

First  day  :  The  Corsican  tyrant  has  landed  at 
the  Gulf  of  Juan. 

Second  day  :  Grenoble  has  opened  its  gates  to 
the  bloody  usurper. 

Third  day  :  Bonaparte  has  made  his  entry  into 
Lyons. 

Fourth  day  :  General  Bonaparte  has  won  over 
a  division  of  the  Royal  Army. 

Fifth  day  :  Napoleon  is  now  only  ninety  miles 
from  Paris. 

Sixth  day  :  The  Emperor  Napoleon  arrived  last 
night  at  Fontainebleau. 

Seventh  day :  His  Majesty  the  Emperor  entered 
the  Tuileries  at  half-past  eight  last  evening. 

For  all  the  doubts  that  have  been  cast  on 
Napoleon's  sincerity  in  respect  of  his  concessions 
to  journalism,  on  his  return  from  Elba,  some 
writers  of  the  day  appear  to  think  that  his 
meditations  on  his  own  downfall,  while  in  exile, 
had  led  him  to  the  conclusion  that,  with  the  Press 
on  his  side,  he  might  have  secured  his  throne 
during  the  first  reign.  It  is  certain  that  on  his 
return  from  Elba  the  newspapers  enjoyed  a 
freedom  of  expression  which  they  had  never  before 
known.     To  Benjamin  Constant  Napoleon  said  : 

"  The    liberty   of  the    Press   is   above   all    an 


230      NAPOLEON  AND  JOURNALISM 

essential  in  wise  government.  To  seek  to  suppress 
it  is  absurd — of  that  I  am  convinced." 

In  opening  the  Chambers  he  declared  again  that 
the  liberty  of  the  Press  was  a  capital  consideration 
in  the  new  programme  for  France,  with  which  he 
had  returned  from  Elba,  and  even  when  certain 
journals  began  to  advocate  the  assassination  of 
their  well-wisher,  Napoleon  took  no  action  to 
limit  their  candour.  The  Journal  Universel  at 
Ghent  drew  a  pretty  parallel  between  Cain  and 
the  Corsican — much  to  the  latter' s  disadvantage  ; 
yet  no  move  was  made  to  oppose  its  appearance 
twice  a  week. 

Napoleon  himself  declared  at  St  Helena  that 
the  newspapers  counted  for  nothing  in  his  fall. 
The  Press,  he  said,  was  one  of  those  institutions 
which  need  not  be  discussed  as  to  the  good  or  evil 
which  they  do  in  a  nation.  The  main  concern 
of  governments  is  this  :  can  public  opinion  be 
opposed  in  curtailing  the  liberties  of  the  Press  ? 
His  own  experience,  he  admitted,  had  taught  him 
that  to  curtail  those  liberties  had  been  a  blunder, 
and  accordingly,  when  he  returned  from  Elba, 
it  was  with  the  firm  intention  of  allowing  news- 
papers to  say  what  they  liked. 

It  seems  fairly  clear,  then,  that  Napoleon  was 
no  friend  of  the  Press  in  the  earlier  days  of  his 
triumphant  progress,  and  it  must  be  admitted  that 
his  treatment  of  that  institution  lessens  to  a  great 
extent  the  opinion  we  have  been  taught  to  enter- 
tain about  his  marvellous  prevision  in  political 
and  diplomatic  matters.     Even  Joseph  and  Louis 


BONAPARTE  :    EDITOR  231 

Bonaparte,  who  were  perhaps  the  least  endowed 
as  poHticians  of  this  wonderful  family,  had 
solemnly  warned  him  betimes  that  the  already- 
powerful  newspaper  world  was  one  which  would 
brook  neither  mishandling  nor  indifference  on  his 
part,  only  to  receive  the  famous  reply : 

"  You  fools  attach  far  too  much  importance  to 
the  society  and  opinion  of  journalists  and  literary 
men.  That  class  of  individuals  is  made  up  of  just 
so  many  coquv-ttes  whom  it  may  be  wise  to  play 
with,  but  whom  we  should  never  dream  of  making 
either  our  wives  or  our  ministers." 

The  soldier,  as  a  rule — and  the  truth  has  been 
very  fully  impressed  upon  us  in  these  later  times 
— is  ever  jealous  of  the  writer,  and  from  his  veiy 
first  debuts  as  a  general,  Bonaparte  had  been  made 
to  feel  that  there  was  one  force  which  all  the 
militarism  in  the  world  was  powerless  to  muzzle 
or  coerce.  Even  while  in  Italy,  during  his  first 
important  campaign,  he  had  founded  a  journal 
which  lasted  for  two  years  and  was  known  as  the 
Courrier  de  VArinee  (Tltalie.  In  this  publication 
was  at  various  times  forecast  the  vast  programme 
which  Napoleon  subsequently  carried  out  for  his 
own  aggrandisement  and  that  of  France,  and  a 
perusal  of  its  first  numbers  leaves  one  with  the 
impression  that  Bonaparte  had  brought  it  into 
existence  more  with  a  view  to  showing  the 
Directory  that,  with  his  advent,  their  supreme 
power  had  finally  departed,  than  with  any  hope 
of  affecting  public  opinion  to  a  very  important  ex- 
tent.    "To  defend  liberty  and  its  friends  against 


7 


232      NAPOLEON  AND  JOURNALISM 

the  partisans  of  tyranny  and  terror "  was  the 
chief  aim  of  its  founders,  as  it  stated  in  the  first 
issue.  The  Courrier  made  its  appearance  twice 
a  week  when  first  started,  but  its  main  object 
once  achieved — namely,  the  warnings  addressed 
to  the  Directory — the  pubhcation  became  some- 
what irregular. 

Napoleon,  as  M.  de  Narbonne  informs  us,  had 
special  correspondents  in  nearly  every  country 
in  Europe,  and  certainly  in  all  the  important 
centres  of  France  and  Italy,  who  transmitted 
to  himself  all  sorts  of  information  regarding 
the  state  of  public  opinion,  the  tendencies, 
intrigues  and  intentions  of  publicists,  salons, 
clerics  and  speculators.  M.  de  Villemain  also 
tells  us  how  on  one  occasion  the  Emperor, 
towards  the  close  of  his  reign,  addressed  himself 
to  an  audience  at  the  Tuileries  with  especial 
reference  to  the  "  vulgar  outspokenness "  of 
certain  sections  of  the  Press  which  were  already 
growing  bold  enough  to  preach  ideas  about  "  the 
beginning  of  the  end,"  and  in  such  a  way.  Napoleon 
said,  as  to  make  him  blush  for  the  nation.  This 
was  in  1813,  when  the  end  was  unmistakably  in 
sight. 


CHAPTER  XIV 
BONAPARTE  versus  DE  STAEL 


Bonaparte  attracts  de  Stael — Bonaparte's  Natural 
Antipathy  for  Corinne — Attgereau  and  Madame — 
Chez  M.  de  Talleyrand — Constant  and  Corinne — 
Benjamin  s  Little  Inadvertence — De  Stael  and  her 
Spokesman — Intrigues  against  Bonaparte — High 
Political  Ambitions — Une  Femme  incomprise — Her 
Work  on  Literature — Constant  is  dismissed — De 
StaePs  Comme7it — Bernadofte  ajid  Corinne — Delphine 
appears — Bonaparte's  Comments — A  Pen-Portrait  oj 
Corinne — Madame  at  Weimar, in  Vienna  and  Stockholm 
— Coriime's  Regard  for  England — Her  Son  Augustus 
— Some  Fatherly  Advice — Projected  Fisit  to  America 
— De  I'Allemagne — A  Machine  a  Mouvement— 
Napoleon  disgusted  with  her  Fietvs — Goethe  and  de 
Stael's  Work  on  Germany — The  lisit  to  Russia — 
"  The  Conscience  of  Europe" — Stein  and  de  Stael — 
Her  Essay  on  Siucide — Goes  to  Lo?idon — Byron's 
Opinion  of  Corinne — Death  in  1817 — Gourgaud  and 
Madame — Napoleon  s  Impartial  Opinion  of  her 
Qualities 


A 


LTHOUGH  Madame  de  Stael  had  not 
met  Bonaparte  until  his  arrival  in 
Paris,  5th  December  1797,  at  the  close 
of  the  Italian  campaign,  she  had  begun 
to  correspond  with  him  shortly  after  the  young 
soldier  had  proved  his  supreme  military  quality 
by  winning  the  battle  of  Lodi.  Even  her 
early  letters  to  Bonaparte  overflowed  with  an 
enthusiasm  which  reflects  little  credit  on  the 
womanly  taste  of  the  chatelaine  of  Coppet,  and 
if  it  be  true  that  great  artists  are  too  self-centred 
to  care  very  much  about  the  proprieties,  then 
Madame  de  Stael  was  certainly  a  first-class  type 
of  the  artistic  race.  In  the  earliest  of  these 
effusions  addressed  to  the  soldier  at  Milan,  the 
lady  attributes  to  him  all  the  \drtues  of  "  Scipio 
and  Tancred  combined,  possessing  the  simplicity 
of  the  latter  and  the  brilliancy  of  the  former." 
In  a  third  epistle  to  the  celebrity  whom  she  had 
not  yet  met,  she  shows  how  far  her  enthusiasm 
is  capable  of  carrying  her.  Bonaparte  was  in 
those  days,  it  was  well  known,  still  very  much 
in  love  with  Josephine,  and  we  may  imagine  his 
surprise  on  hearing  from  de  Stael  that  his  union 
with  "  an  insignificant  little  Creole,  unworthy  and 
incapable  of  appreciating  him,  is  nothing  short 
of  monstrous." 

"  That  creature  is  mad,  Bourrienne,"  cries  Bona- 
parte to  the  secretary,  who  records  the  fact  in  his 
Memoires,  vol.  vi.,  "  and  I  shall  certainly  not  reply 
to  such  letters.  Fancy  a  blue-stocking,  a  maker 
of  romances,  comparing  herself  with  Josephine  !  " 

234 


A  DANGEROUS  WOMAN  285 

Even  the  uncouth  soldier  Augereau  is  said  to 
have  taken  the  measure  of  the  lady,  who  pestered 
him  ^vith  questions  as  to  Bonaparte's  love  of 
Liberty,  his  ideals  and  his  personality.  Discussing 
his  ambition,  she  asks  if  it  is  true  that  he  has  an  eye 
on  the  crown  of  Lombardy,  and  Augereau' s  reply 
evokes  a  titter  at  the  garrulous  woman's  expense  : 

"  No,  indeed,"  he  says,  "  he  is  much  too  well 
bred  a  young  man  to  entertain  such  notions." 

When  at  last  she  meets  Bonaparte,  who  was 
calling  on  Talleyrand,  then  Minister  for  Foreign 
Affairs,  the  young  General,  after  a  kindly  word 
about  her  father,  turns  away  quickly,  as  if  he 
feared  an  impromptu  harangue.  She  on  her 
part  begins  to  epier  the  Conqueror,  but  remains 
silent  and  apparently  troubled.  In  the  immedi- 
ate sequel,  all  de  Stael's  attempts  to  attach 
the  young  General — she  was  some  three  years 
his  senior — to  her  own  coterie  were  to  meet  with 
failure,  and  he  refuses  politely  but  firmly  to  attend 
even  her  receptions — a  refusal  which  is  explained 
by  biographers  of  both  celebrities  on  the  ground, 
first,  that  he  disUked — as  most  really  masculine 
men  dislike — anything  like  the  affectation  of 
esprit  fort  on  the  part  of  a  woman,  a  type  with 
which  recent  hermaphroditic  decades  have  made 
ourselves  so  familiar.  In  the  second  place,  Bona- 
parte was  well  aware  that  a  partisan  of  de  Stael's 
political  activity  was  quite  capable  of  com- 
promising him  with  the  Directory,  whose  suspicion 
as  regards  himself,  and  his  intentions,  he  was  far 
from  wishing,  at  that  time,  to  arouse. 


y 


236      BONAPARTE  versus  DE  STAEL 

It  was  at  a  fete  given  by  Talleyrand — according 
to  Lucien  Bonaparte,  on  the  great  revolutionary 
day  of  Brumaire — that  Bonaparte,  the  centre  of  a 
circle  of  admirers,  was  asked  by  de  Stael  to  name 
the  greatest  woman  known  to  history. 

"  The  woman  who  has  had  the  most  children," 
replies  the  General  with  admirable  wisdom  and 
in  a  taste  which  accorded  sufficiently  well,  we 
may  suppose,  with  the  ambiguous  society  of  the 
new  regime.  A  few  days  afterwards,  again,  when 
the  persistent  iirecieuse  chooses  a  dramatic  moment 
to  ask  him  if  he  likes  women,  Bonaparte  replies 
that  he  loves  his  wife— a  retort  the  real  value 
of  which  altogether  loses  its  effect  in  the  English 
rendering.  Madame  de  Stael  did  not  miss  the 
point,  however,  and,  in  order  probably  to  cover 
her  chagrin,  affected  to  see  its  sublimity : 

"  Epaminondas  would  have  given  me  the  same 
answer,"  she  tells  Lucien,  who  was  a  very  close 
ally,  and  who  records  Madame' s  opinion  here- 
anent  in  the  second  volume  of  his  Memoires.  By 
the  beginning  of  1799  de  Stael  had  to  admit  that 
she  had  never  met  a  man  of  Bonaparte's  kind  or 
character,  and  in  January  of  that  year  she  decides 
to  return  to  Switzerland,  there  to  set  about  some 
work  or  other  which  is,  she  thinks,  to  prove 
unfailingly  to  Bonaparte  her  possession  of  a 
genius  for  politics  with  which  France  shall  have 
to  reckon.  She  returned  to  Paris  and  was  present, 
as  we  have  seen,  on  the  day  of  the  overthrow  of 
the  Directory.  Her  devotion  to  the  cause  of 
Bonaparte,  enthusiastically  expressed  in  all  her 


BENJAMIN  CONSTANT  237 

letters,  arose,  says  Gautier,  from  her  inability  to 
see  that  the  successful  General  of  the  Revolution 
was  now  playing  for  his  own  hand— a  mistake 
which  Sieyes,  Benjamin  Constant,  Roederer  and 
many  other  ardent  Republicans  also  made. 

Benjamin  Constant  entered  so  intimately  into 
the  life  of  de  Stael  that  it  is  impossible  to  separate 
the  couple.  We  cannot,  accordingly,  overlook  a 
story  of  Constant,  told  by  Aime-Martin  and 
Chabaud,  when  de  Stael  sought  to  use  her  influence 
for  the  promotion  of  her  fellow-countryman  and 
lover.  As  the  Tribunal  was  about  to  be  organised. 
Constant  presented  himself  chez  Bonaparte  and 
requested  a  seat  in  the  new  Assembly. 

"  You  must  know,"  said  Benjamin,  "  that  I 
am  entirely  devoted  to  your  service,  and  am  not 
one  of  those  ideologues  who  want  to  run  the  world 
on  theories — like  Sieyes,  for  instance.  Mine  is  a 
positive,  an  objective  mind,  and  if  you  appoint 
me,  you  can  rely  altogether  on  my  loyalty." 

The  new  Constitution  had  not  yet  been  drawn 
up,  and  it  occurred  to  Constant,  on  leaving 
Bonaparte,  that  as  Sieyes  lived  nearly  opposite 
the  General,  it  might  be  just  as  well  to  pay  a 
friendly  visit  to  the  ex-Abbe,  who  received  him 
cordially. 

"  I  should  be  glad,"  said  Constant  to  his  host, 
"  to  be  appointed  to  the  Tribunat,  and  hope  not 
to  seem  unworthy  of  that  honour  in  your  eyes. 
You  know  I  hate  force  and  am  no  friend  of  the 
sword.  What  I  want  is  principles,  ideals,  justice, 
and  if  you  will  help  me,  you  can  rely  altogether 


238      BONAPARTE  versus  DE  STAEL 

on  my  loyalty,  for,  let  me  assure  you,  I  frankly 
detest  Bonaparte." 

Constant  had  strangely  overlooked  the  im- 
portant fact  that  Chabaud,  who  had  been  present 
when  he  met  Bonaparte  across  the  road,  had  also 
in  the  meantime  come  over  to  pay  a  diplomatic 
visit  to  Sieyes,  and  remained  unobserved  while 
Benjamin  made  his  new  act  of  political  faith  to 
the  Abbe. 

Constant  was,  however,  ultimately  appointed 
to  the  Tribunat,  and  Madame  de  Stael  and  her 
lover  at  once  came  to  the  conclusion  that  Bona- 
parte had  nominated  him  through  fear  of  the 
influence  exerted  by  her  writings  and  salon. 
Accordingly  de  Stael  thought  the  moment  oppor- 
tune to  start  her  intrigues  for  ridding  the  Govern- 
ment of  Bonaparte  and  inaugurating  a  regime 
of  republican  liberty — a  condition  of  affairs  which 
was  not  likely  for  long  to  escape  the  observation 
of  the  new  chief  of  the  State.  Bonaparte  sends 
his  brother  Joseph  to  reason  with  the  intriguante, 
offering  even  to  repay  her  father's  loans  to 
Louis  XVI. — a  sum  amounting,  with  the  interest 
for  over  fourteen  years,  to  about  £150,000.  But 
Corinne  is  not  thinking  of  money.  What  she 
wants  is  an  acknowledgment  by  Bonaparte  that 
her  political  role  is  not  a  negligible  one,  and  her 
answer  is  given  in  a  speech  delivered  by  Constant 
and  inspired  by  herself,  which  amounts  to  an 
attack  on  the  Consular  regime  and  its  monarchical 
tendencies.  Bonaparte  replies  by  letting  loose 
the  furies  of  his  own  Press  and  inspiring  to  the 


JEERING  JACOBINS  289 

limit  of  invective  the  Press  of  the  Royahsts  and  also 
that  of  the  Jacobins.  These  all  abhorred  Madame 
de  Stael  with  an  intensity  the  causes  of  which  may 
be  sought  in  the  outrageous  persistency  with  which 
she  clamorously  sought  the  attention  of  an  age 
which  was  but  slightly  acquainted  with  the  political 
female.  Even  this  Press  campaign  she  turns  to  her 
policy  of  personal  reclame  and  assumes  the  role 
of  persecuted  woman,  assuring  Roederer,  among 
a  score  of  correspondents,  that  no  woman  has 
ever  suffered  as  she  has  suffered — a  common 
delusion  of  unwomanly  and  dishonest  women.  A 
short  time  afterwards  she  receives  unequivocal 
orders  to  go  into  residence  at  Saint-Ouen,  where 
she  has  a  chateau,  a  foretaste  of  complete  exile 
which  to  some  extent  saves  her  rather  homely 
face,  for,  acting  under  orders,  the  Talleyrands,  the 
Bonapartes,  the  Beauharnais  and  other  families 
had  long  since  ceased  to  visit  her  salon  in  Paris. 

When  at  the  instance  of  friends,  the  interdict 
is  raised  and  she  returns  to  Paris,  it  is  not,  as 
might  be  hoped,  to  efface  herself  and  devote  the 
tedious  hours  to  literary  work.  She  moves  every 
influence  she  knows  with  the  object  of  being  ad- 
mitted to  the  presence  of  Bonaparte.  He  curtly 
suggesoS  that  Madame  de  Stael,  who  lives  in  great 
luxury,  should  make  a  small  allowance  to  her 
husband,  at  that  time  starving  in  Switzerland. 
Nor  does  the  First  Consul  improve  matters  by 
making  cynical  remarks  on  the  private  life  of 
Corinne,  who,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  at  all 
times  all   things  to  all  men— or  nearly  so.     In 


240     BONAPARTE  versus  DE  STAEL 

1800  she  published  her  work,  De  la  Littendure,  in 
which,  while  the  name  of  the  First  Consul  is  not 
once  mentioned,  the  fierce  attacks  upon  his 
policies  are  clear  as  sunlight.  Naturally,  he  was 
irritated,  but  prudence  forbade  him  showing  his 
anger,  for  even  at  that  date,  as  Chateaubriand 
tells  us,  his  newly  acquired  power  was  far  from 
possessing  the  stability  one  would  imagine  from 
a  study  of  historical  records.  The  battle  of 
Marengo  had  not  yet  consolidated  him  in  his 
omnipotency,  and  although  his  subsidised  Press 
said  all  he  thought — and,  indeed,  more — of 
Corimie's  new  work,  Bonaparte  himself  took 
no  action  against  the  enemy.  He  waited  till 
1802,  when  he  eliminated  a  score  or  so  of  red 
Republicans  from  the  Tribunal,  among  them 
being  de  Stael's  o^mi  mouthpiece,  Benjamin 
Constant,  through  whom,  in  her  serious  opinion, 
she  was  destined  to  place  herself  on  level  political 
terms  with  Bonaparte.  So  much  for  political 
womankind ! 

"  Le  Premier  ConsuW^  she  declared,  on  hearing 
of  this  despotic  act,  "  n^a  pas  epure,  mais  ecreme 
le  Tribunat,^^  and  went  on  to  talk  of  Bonaparte  as 
an  "  ideophobe.^^ 

"  That  sentiment  is  Madame  de  Stael's,  cer- 
tainly," says  the  elegant  Corsican,  when  told 
of  her  mot.  "  I  could  smell  her  a  mile  away. 
Ideophobe,  does  she  say  ?  Why  not  hydrophobe  ? 
Ah  ra — but  who  could  govern  with  people  like 
that  about  !  " 

And    Talleyrand — son   ancien,   her   cast-off — is 


ENTER  DELPHINE !  241 

given  instructions  to  tell  Madame  to  place  a 
sentinel  over  her  big  mouth.  There  is  no 
possible  question  of  a  reconciliation  between 
this  strange  couple  after  the  enactments  of  the 
Concordat  and  the  Life-Consulship,  both  of  which 
clearly  show  to  what  lengths  Bonaparte  is  pre- 
pared to  go,  and  de  Stael,  Constant  and  the  old 
Republican  patriots  finally  realise  how  cleverly 
they  had  been  tricked  by  the  simple  student- 
conqueror  who  returned  from  Italy  in  1797  with 
the  Treaty  of  Campo  Formio  in  his  satchel.  It 
is  now  beyond  doubt  established  that  de  Stael 
counted  for  an  important  equation  in  the  con- 
spiracy in  which  Bernadotte  engaged  before  the 
passing  of  the  Concordat.  Corinne  charged  the 
future  King  of  Sweden  with  hesitancy  if  not 
cowardice  : 

"  Hurry  up,"  she  wrote,  "  you  have  only  a 
short  time  in  which  to  act.  To-morrow  the 
tyrant  will  have  forty  thousand  priests  in  his 
service." 

The  appearance  of  Delphine  about  this  time 
was  another  blow  at  the  system  of  Bonaparte, 
whose  ambition  had  early  divined  its  great  w-, 
opportunity  in  the  wholesale  restoration  of  order 
which  it  was  in  his  power  to  effect  within  the 
community.  And  on  no  established  social 
institution  had  he  calculated  to  this  end  more 
than  upon  the  marriage  contract,  which  he 
rightly  looked  upon  as  the  keystone  of  national 
life — the  surest  guarantee  of  order  within  the 
State.      Delphine    had    a    vast    success    on    its 

Q 


242     BONAPARTE  versus  DE  STAEL 

appearance ;  it  is  frankly  the  story  of  a  femme 
incomprise,  a  type  of  woman  who,  it  seems  to  us, 
is  never  sure  of  what  she  wants — when  it  is  not 
a  man — and  whose  hfe  seems  to  be  one  long 
pilgrimage  spent  in  a  vain  quest  of  the  male  ideal 
—  ndeed,  a  kind  of  devanciere  of  those  polyand- 
rous  females  with  whom  Georges  Sand  has  made 
us  so  familiar. 

"  Very  false,  immoral  and  altogether  anti- 
social," cries  Bonaparte,  who  in  commenting  on 
its  special  pleadings  for  easy  divorce,  delivers 
himself  of  some  elegant  remarks  about  the  private 
life  of  Madame.  Nor  did  he  fail  to  inspire  the 
scribes  of  his  subsidised  Press.  The  critic  of  the 
Mercure  de  France  speaks  of  women  of  the  type 
of  Deliohinei  who,  it  need  hardly  be  said,  represents 
Madame  de  Stael  herself,  in  the  following  strain  : — 

"  Such  creatures  are  simply  animals  in  their 
lustfulness  and  their  passions,  and  it  is  much 
harder  to  be  their  friends  than  their  lovers.  .  .  . 
Look  at  them,  and  you  will  find  that  they  are 
invariably  great,  fat,  gross,  full-blooded  women 
who,  externally  at  least,  give  no  indication  of  the 
soul-tortures  which  they  affect  to  undergo  " — all 
of  which  bears  the  impress  of  the  Corsican's  style 
and  method  of  invective. 

"\Mien  exiled  in  1803,  Madame  betakes  herself 
to  Germany  and  at  Weimar  meets  Goethe  and 
Wieland,  the  former  of  whom  introduces  his 
friend  Schlegel,  and  this  worthy  man  undertakes 
to  form  the  lady's  ideas  as  regards  his  country, 
its    institutions   and   inhabitants.     Schlegel   even 


ENTER  CORINNE!  248 

accompanies  his  pupil  to  Vienna,  to  Stockholm, 
to  Petersburg,  and  acts  in  the  capacity  of  secretary 
and  press-agent,  with  the  especial  duty  of  giving 
to  all  the  capitals  which  they  visit  a  true  picture 
of  the  tyrant  of  the  Tuileries.  While  she  is  in 
Germany,  the  establishment  of  the  Empire  takes 
place,  and  de  Stael  sets  about  a  new  campaign, 
the  object  of  which  is  to  detach  the  old  French 
nobility  from  the  service  of  Napoleon,  an  attempt 
in  which  she  is  only  partially  successful,  since 
great  families  like  that  of  La  Rochefoucauld,  of 
Remusat,  of  Montmorency,  of  Turenne  and  Segur 
have  shown  no  objection  whatever  to  join  the 
Corsican's  establishment,  and  all  the  more  so 
because  the  astute  upstart  places  a  premium  on 
their  ability  to  show  his  own  ennobled  pai'venus 
how  to  play  the  complete  courtier. 

Napoleon,  whose  Cabinet  Noir  is  ever  on  the 
alert,  intercepts  every  letter  written  by  his  enemy 
and  there  is  consequently  no  detail  of  her  intrigues 
with  which  he  is  not  acquainted.  Madame  does 
not  even  suspect  the  Emperor's  espionage  and 
is  stirred  "  almost  to  con\ailsions "  when  on 
requesting  permission  to  reside  near  Paris,  she  is 
ordered  to  remove  nearer  to  the  frontier.  Nor 
does  the  appearance  of  Corinne  improA'e  the 
relations  of  the  twain  :  Napoleon  accuses  her  of 
being  frankly  anti-French  and  correspondingly 
Anglophile,  for  Corinne  is  one  long  paean  of  the 
English  character  and  all  its  peculiar  virtues, 
which  spring,  she  maintains,  from  such  free 
political  institutions  as  enable  them  to  flourish. 


244     BONAPARTE  versus  DE  STAEL 

And  to  the  accusation  that  she  has  deUberately 
depreciated  the  French  character,  de  Stael  rephes 
that  she  only  represents  the  "  abaissement  des 
caracteres  dans  Vetat  sociaV^ — which  the  Corsican's 
despotism  has  deUberately  brought  about. 

In  1808  Napoleon  indicated  in  very  clear  terms 
his  reasons  for  treating  Madame  de  Stael  as  a 
public  enemy  and  for  keeping  her  in  exile.  All 
her  Paris  friends  having  failed  of  inducing  the 
Emperor  to  allow  the  lady  to  reside  in  the  Capital, 
her  son,  Augustus,  a  schoolboy  of  seventeen, 
decided  himself  to  seek  an  interview  with  Napoleon 
and  endeavour  to  move  his  pity.  The  Emperor 
was  on  his  way  back  from  Italy  and  young  de 
Stael,  knowing  that  he  would  pass  through 
Chambery,  awaited  his  coming  in  that  city.  On 
being  told  the  object  of  the  boy's  visit.  Napoleon, 
one  is  pleased  and,  indeed,  not  surprised  to  hear, 
consents  to  see  him  while  he  is  breakfasting 
at  a  hotel,  and  grants  the  youth  an  audience  of 
nearly  an  hour.  The  Emperor  does  not,  he  himself 
says,  consider  Madame  de  Stael  a  bad  woman,  but 
only  a  woman  who  will  not  submit  to  authority, 
and  he  must  insist  on  being  obeyed.  She  could 
not  curb  her  tongue,  and  though  she  may  not 
attach  much  importance  to  what  she  says. 
Napoleon  does,  since  he  knows  for  how  much 
she  counts  in  public  opinion. 

"  I  have  to  take  things  very  seriously,"  he 
tells  the  boy,  "  and  if  I  were  to  allow  your  mother 
to  return  to  Paris,  Avithin  six  months  I  should  have 
to  imprison  her.     I  should  be  sorry  to  have  to  do 


THE  AMERICAN  TOUCH  245 

so,  since  I  must  suffer  for  it  in  the  opinion  of 
the  pubHc.  ...  As  for  you,  jeune  homme,  stick 
to  the  right  path  in  pohtics,  for  I  shall  not  easily 
forgive  a  Necker.  Paris,  you  must  see,  is  my 
home,  and  there  I  can  tolerate  only  those  who 
respect  me.  If  I  allowed  your  mother  to  come 
to  Paris,  she  would  very  soon  lose  me  all  my 
friends.  Rome,  Naples,  Vienna,  Berlin,  Milan, 
even  London — all  these  cities  are  open  to  her. 
She  has  only  to  choose." 

After  that,  and  as  she  found  herself  more  closely 
watched  at  Coppet,  there  was  nothing  for  it  but 
America,  and  at  one  time  she  seriously  thought 
of  going  there.  An  American  newspaper,  hear- 
ing of  the  likelihood  of  the  great  Corinne  visiting 
"  these  shores,"  comments  thereon  in  character- 
istic superlatives  : 

"  She  is  a  tremendously  wealthy  woman  and 
lives  in  extremely  splendid  and  decorous  style  at 
her  very  elegant  mansion.  The  famous  woman 
has  also  written  several  books  which,  having  a 
large  circulation  in  Europe,  undoubtedly  bring 
her  in  good  money. ^' 

"  The  savages  !  "  cries  Madame  de  Stael  when 
she  reads  this  exquisite  Press  notice. 

All  literary  Europe  knew  by  this  time  that  her 
work  on  Germany,  to  which  she  had  given  six 
years'  close  labour,  was  already  in  the  hands  of 
the  printers;  and  the  critics,  not  less  than  the 
connoisseurs  and  politicians,  were  all  on  the  alert 
for  its  appearance.  Ten  thousand  copies  had 
already  been  struck  off  by  the  publisher  when 


246     BONAPARTE  versus  DE  STAEL 

Napoleon  gave  orders  to  Savary — then  Minister 
of  Police — to  suppress  the  whole  issue.  Her 
son  preserved  the  manuscript,  however,  and  the 
work  was  eventually  published  in  London  by 
John  Murray,  in  1813. 

"  I  am  sending  you,"  Napoleon  wrote  to 
Savary,  "  the  work  of  Madame  de  Stael.  Has  she 
the  right  to  describe  herself  as  a  Baroness  ?  Did 
she  adopt  this  title  in  previous  works  ?  Suppress 
the  passage  relating  to  the  Duke  of  Brunsmck, 
and  three-fourths  of  what  she  has  to  say  in  praise 
of  England.  She  has  done  us  enough  harm  in 
this  respect." 

Even  now  de  Stael,  with  that  never-failing  self- 
delusion  which  marks  her  relations  with  Napoleon, 
solicits  permission  in  an  eloquent  letter  to  the 
Emperor  to  be  allowed  to  reside  in  Paris  : 

*'  Why  should  I  blush,"  she  cries,  "  to  ask  for 
friendship,  poetry,  music,  painting  and  all  that 
ideal  existence  which  I  can  enjoy  without  refusing 
obedience  to  the  sovereign  of  France  ?  " 

Napoleon  is  said  to  have  been  touched  by 
this  appeal,  but  was  true  to  his  conviction  that 
Madame  de  Stael  was  too  much  a  machine  a 
mouvement  to  be  trusted  in  such  susceptible 
political  salons  as  those  of  Paris. 

Constant,  in  his  Memoirs,  tells  us  how  Napoleon, 
after  reading  a  certain  passage  in  De  VAllemagne, 
threw  the  work  on  the  fire  and  gave  orders  that 
Madame  was  to  be  more  strictly  watched  than 
ever.  There  is  little  doubt  that  the  Emperor 
suppressed   the   book   on   general   principles,   as 


A  FEMALE  TACITUS  247 

they  say,  and  without  having  made  any  especial 
study  of  the  ideas  it  set  forth.     Nor  can  it  be 
doubted    that    he    not    only   directed    but    even 
stimulated   the   zeal  of  those  to  whom  he  had 
assigned  the  task  of  spying  on  de  Stael  and  her 
movements.     This  work,  it  may  be  observed,  was 
an  unequivocal  appea'  to  the  Germanic  nations 
to  thrown  off  the  yoke  which  had  oppressed  them 
since  1806,  to  organise  their  resources,  to  learn 
the  lessons  that  England  and  the  Peninsula  were 
then  teaching  to  the  enslaved  Continent,  and  to 
be  prepared  against  the  hour  w^hich  was  at  hand 
when  the  awakening  peoples  would  turn  and  rend 
their  oppressor.     Even  Goethe,  in  February,  1814 
— when  his  friend  Napoleon  w^as  obviously  on  the 
eve  of  his  first  collapse — could  write  to  his  corre- 
spondent, Madame  von  Grotthus  :  "  The  French 
police,  intelligent  enough  to  realise  that  a  work  like 
De  V Allemagne  must  have  the  effect  of  building 
up  the  confidence  of  the  Germans  in  themselves, 
prudently  suppressed  it.     Even  at  this  very  hour 
it  is  producing  an  astonishing  effect."     It  is  not 
difficult,  therefore,  to  understand  why  Napoleon 
refused  to  allow  this  modern  female  Tacitus  to 
place   her  new   De  Moribus  before   a    Germany 
which  w^as  only  awaiting  an  auspicious  moment 
to  raise  the  banners  of  reasoned — and  honourable 
— revolt. 

In  1812  Madame  de  Stael  made  her  memorable 
visit  to  Russia,  and  was  already  in  Moscow^  w-hen 
the  Napoleonic  armies  were  advancing  on 
Smolensk.     The  great  society  of  the  old  capital 


248     BONAPARTE  versus  DE  STAEL 

failed  to  understand  Madame,  although  they  were 
willing  to  do  her  reverence,  first,  as  the  enemy  of 
Napoleon,  and,  secondly,  as  the  great  representa- 
tive of  the  "  conscience  of  Europe."  Even  semi- 
barbaric  Muscovy  found  Corinne  heavy  of  form 
and  unpleasing  of  face — "  too  big  for  a  woman  and 
built  like  a  man,"  as  Arndt  put  it.  Nor  did  they 
think  her  style  of  dress  becoming  in  a  woman 
already  approaching  her  fiftieth  year;  "her  dis- 
courses are  too  long  and  her  sleeves  too  short," 
said  a  sententious  member  of  the  Rostopchin 
family,  who  also  describes  the  amusing  way  in 
which  our  elephantine  Egeria  and  Baron  Stein 
used  to  caramboler  together  on  the  sofa  when 
discussing  the  iniquities  of  the  latter-day  Nero. 
From  Moscow  de  Stael  proceeds  to  Stockholm, 
where  she  finds  her  old  friend  Bernadotte  already 
Crown  Prince  of  Sweden  and  quite  as  cordially 
disposed  towards  her  as  in  the  early  days  of  the 
First  Consulate. 

Here  she  resumes  her  literary  activities  and  an 
avalanche  of  pamphlets  is  the  result,  in  which 
Bernadotte  is  extolled  as  Europe's  only  hope 
against  Napoleon.  Schlegel's  essay  on  Napoleon's 
Continental  system  appears  about  the  same  time, 
and  Napoleon,  not  less  than  the  connoisseurs,  is 
perfectly  well  aware  that  Madame  de  Stael  is  the 
inspiration  behind  this  attack  on  himself  and  his 
system.  Even  in  her  short  Essay  on  Suicide  she 
finds  it  impossible  to  avoid  giving  expression  to 
her  political  views,  and  accordingly  assails  the  sort 
of  egoism  that  allows  no^enthusiasm  to  live  which 


r/uHo,i:raflt :  II'.  A.  Manse!:  &■  Co. 


MADAME   DE   STAEL 

1804 

After  the  (yaintiiiii  by  Gotle/ruy 


BYRON  AND  MADAME  249 

finds  its  source  in  ideas  of  liberty  and  independ- 
ence. She  attacks  the  type  of  Christianity  which, 
bending  before  the  tyrant,  remains  satisfied  with 
its  own  slavery,  and  finally  deplores  the  "  fashion 
of  suicide,"  almost  vulgarised  since  Werther, 
throughout  Germany,  and  points  out  that  death 
in  battle  against  despotism  is  a  far  worthier  way 
of  quitting  life.  And  not  satisfied  with  working 
herself  against  the  enemy,  she  induces  her  bride- 
groom husband,  Rocca,  to  write  his  experiences 
of  the  French  campaign  in  Spain — a  frank  ex- 
position of  Napoleon's  inhuman  methods  when 
carrying  war  into  hostile  countries.  Monsieur  de 
Rochechouart  tells  us,  too,  that  until  Madame  de 
Stael  had  suggested  its  possibility  to  him,  Berna- 
dotte  had  never  conceived  the  idea  of  succeeding 
Napoleon  as  Emperor  of  the  French. 

In  London,  where  she  resided  on  leaving  Sweden, 
all  society  rushed  to  her  salon^  and  among  the 
many  historic  names  on  her  visiting  list,  we  note 
that  of  Byron,  then  in  his  twenty-fifth  year,  who 
quickly  wearied  of  the  voluble  lady  and  declared 
that  if  her  books  were  in  octavo  style,  her  eloquence 
was  certainly  in  folio.  Murray  published  her  book, 
De  VAllemagne,  in  1813,  and  the  result  of  the  battle 
of  Leipzig  proved  to  Englishmen  that  they  were 
entertaining  a  prophetess,  for  she  had  foretold 
Napoleon's  collapse  when  Germany's  national 
conscience  should  awaken.  On  8th  May  1814, 
while  Napoleon  is  making  his  way  to  Elba,  de 
Stael  returned  to  Paris,  in  broken  health,  and  not 
unmoved  at  the  fate  [of  the~Corsican,  whom,  for 


250     BONAPARTE  versus  DE  STAEL 

all  her  opposition,  she  never  ceased  to  look  upon 
as  the  only  hero  of  the  modem  world.  Napoleon, 
indeed,  on  his  return  from  Elba  recognised  that 
she  had  been  kinder  to  him  in  his  misfortune  than 
she  had  ever  proved  during  his  prosperity,  and 
in  the  hope  of  attaching  her  to  his  new  constitu- 
tional ideas,  expressed  his  desire  for  an  under- 
standing, admitting  that  she  had  made  him  more 
enemies  during  her  exile  than  she  could  have  done 
had  he  allowed  her  to  remain  in  France.  It  is 
also  said  that  Napoleon  gave  her  to  understand 
that  her  old  claim  on  the  French  Treasury  should 
be  settled,  and  in  the  Memorial,  chapter  iii., 
Madame  de  Stael  is  represented  as  addressing  a 
letter  to  the  Emperor,  conceived  in  the  most 
fulsome  terms,  in  which  in  consideration  of 
receiving  her  millions,  she  offers  to  devote  her 
pen  and  her  principles  for  ever  to  Napoleon — a 
charge  which  may,  we  think,  be  dismissed,  as 
well  as  Gourgaud's  statement  to  the  same  effect. 
Says  this  very  naif  aide-de-camp,  who  might 
well,  indeed,  have  posed  for  the  picture  of  the 
imperishable  Brigadier  Gerard,  in  volume  ii.  of 
his  Memoirs  : 

"  She  gave  me  to  understand  that  if  I  could 
induce  the  Treasury  to  pay  over  her  millions, 
she  would  write  anything  /  wanted."  And  then 
airily  :  "  Je  V envoy ai  loromener—I  sent  her  about 
her  business." 

On  the  second  return  of  Louis  XVIII.  Madame 
de  Stael  played  a  more  important  role  in  Court 
and   general    society   than   she   had   done   even 


HER  EPITAPH  251 

during  the  first  restoration — a  fact  which  seems 
to  give  the  He  to  the  charge  that  she  had  been 
mlUng  to  sell  herself  to  Napoleon.  At  St  Helena, 
in  1817,  the  death  of  this  great  woman  moved  the 
tactless  Gourgaud  to  remind  the  fallen  Emperor 
that  her  world  role  had  been  epitomised  in  the 
description  of  Europe's  great  Entente  between 
1805  and  1815  as  "  Britain,  Russia  and  Madame 
de  Stael." 

"  She  was  a  woman,"  said  Napoleon,  with  real 
justice,  "  of  very  great  powers  of  mind." 


CHAPTER  XV 

BIOGI— CHATEAUBRIAND 
STENDHAL 


Afi  Lnstoried  Celebrity — Biogi  and  Bonaparte — 
Philosopher  and  Artist — Biogi  and  the  Military  Art 
— The  Corsicans  Affection  for  him — Poisons  and 
Antidotes — The  Battle-field  of  Rivoli — Berthier  and 
Bonaparte — Biogi  dislikes  Army  Men— Bonaparte  as 
Connoisseur — Gros  and  the  Areola  Picture — Biogi' s 
Description  of  the  Corsican — M.  de  Chateaubriand 
— The  ricomte  and  the  First  Consul — A  Mutual 
Antipathy — Le  Genie  du  Christianisme — Essentially 
anti-Catholic — Chateaubriand's  Egotism — The  Little 
Man  and  the  Big  Quarry — The  Vicomle  is  dismissed 
— His  Colossal  Vanity — His  Obsession  as  to  Xapoleon 
— Some  Expressions  of  Opinion — "  Napoleon  and  My- 
self"— Beyle,  alias  Stendhal — His  Literary  Pedigree 
— The  Individualistic  Touch — His  Connection  with 
Xapoleon — Stendhal's  Idolatry — His  Impartiality — 
France  and  the  Empire — Napoleon's  Dead-heads — 
Stendhal  and  the  e.r-Empress  Eugenie — Aii  Author's 
Discretion  —  Stendhal,  Megalomanaic  —  Napoleon's 
Trust  in  him — An  Imperial  Present — The  "Soul"  of 
the  Imperial  Army — Stupid  Officialdom — Napoleon, 
France's  Greatest  Man — His  Best  Achievement — '^Tlie 
Great  Emperor" — A  Change  of  Temper — A  Literary 
Mak's  Philosophy — Napoleon  diminishes — A  Final 
Recantation — "  Napoleon  was  our  only  Religion  " 


WHAT  the   painter   Biogi  achieved   as 
an  artist  we  are  unfortunately  unable 
to  say,  since  our  researches,  in  many 
biographical  dictionaries  of  his  own  and 
later  times,  tell  us  nothing  either  of  his  professional 
status  or  even  of  his  ever  having  passed  across 
the  crowded  stage  of  the  Napoleonic  drama.     To 
Stendhal  we  owe  it  that  this  young  landscape 
painter,  a  Frenchman  by  birth  and  an  Italian  by 
origin,  has  been  rescued  from  complete  oblivion 
and  given  an  honourable  place  in  the  annals  of 
the   Corsican.     The  picture   drawn  by   Stendhal 
of  Biogi's  association  with  the  soldier  is,  in  our 
opinion,  one  of  the  most  pleasing  we  have  met  with 
in  our  quest  for  details  concerning  the  art-circle  of 
Napoleon,  and  the  youthful  artist's  independence 
of  mind  and  character  in  his  attitude  towards  the 
Conqueror,  as  well   as  towards  the  temptations 
which  the  latter  so  persistently  held  out  to  him 
for  his  personal  advancement,  must  be  admitted 
to  be  singular,  as  shown  by  a  member  of  a  brother- 
hood which  is  not  remarkable  for  its  indifference 
either  to  the  spectacular  life,  or  to  its  possibilities. 
It  was    during  the  operations  on  the  Mincio, 
in  the   early   Italian   campaign,  that   Bonaparte 
and  Biogi  met  for  the  first  time.     The  successful 
soldier,  already  surrounded  by  a  crowd  of  syco- 
phants and   intriguing  self-seekers,  was  at   once 
attracted  towards  his   youthful  countryman   by 
the  strange  trait  of  philosophic  indifference  with 
which  the  latter  watched,  unmoved  and  detached, 
the  imposing  drama  even  at  that  period  beginning 

254 


THE  MILITARY  CAREER  255 

to  unfold  itself  round  the  figure  of  the  Corsican. 
Biogi's  work  had,  moreover,  the  advantage  of 
making  an  especial  appeal  to  the  as  yet  uncor- 
rupted  taste  of  the  triumphant  warrior — namely, 
in  that  it  was  untouched  by  what  Napoleon  himself 
termed  the  gasconisme  common  to  artists  of  the 
time,  whose  tendency  was  to  exaggerate  the  actual 
beauty  and  effect  of  all  the  scenes  and  portraits 
which  they  committed  to  canvas.  Failing  to 
induce  the  artist  to  throw  in  his  lot  with  him  as  a 
military  man,  and  although  he  had  added  a  promise 
to  look  carefully  after  his  promotion,  Bonaparte 
sought  to  attach  Biogi  permanently  to  his  suite 
in  the  capacity  of  official  painter.  To  both 
offers  the  young  Frenchman  answered  very 
candidly  : 

"  General,  I  am  far  from  blaming  men  who 
adopt  the  military  profession  which,  in  its  own 
way,  may  doubtless  be  both  noble  and  useful. 
To  me,  however,  it  makes  no  sympathetic  appeal, 
and  I  am  of  those  who  look  upon  it  as  a  coarse 
and  inhuman  trade  which  never  fails  to  show  men 
in  their  worst  aspects.  Not  all  the  glory  of  all  the 
conquerors  that  ever  lived  could  induce  me  to 
devote  myself  to  a  military  career." 

To  the  offer  that  Biogi  should  become  the  official 
pictorial  chronicler  of  the  brilliant  Italian  cam- 
paign, which  Bonaparte  made  to  him  on  the 
morrow  of  Rivoli,  the  painter  replied  : 

"  Sir,  on  entering  on  my  profession  I  took 
the  resolve  never  to  allow  myself  to  work  except 
under  such  inspirations  as  came  directly  from  my 


256  BIOGI-CHATEAUBRIAND-STENDHAL 

own  heart  and  mind,  and  I  feel  that  the  battle- 
field is  the  least  likely  of  all  scenes  to  move  my 
brush  to  endeavour  into  which  I  can  throw  either 
my  heart  or  my  mind." 

Biogi,  it  appears,  was  hardly  less  attracted 
towards  Napoleon  than  the  latter  to  himself. 
He  it  was  who  once  counselled  the  young  General 
to  undergo  a  kind  of  regular  regime  with  a  view 
to  preparing  his  constitution  against  the  possibility 
of  being  poisoned,  by  taking  antidotes  and  so 
preserving  his  life  for  the  benefit  of  the  Republic. 
Berthier,  says  Stendhal,  on  this  occasion  made 
a  sign  to  the  young  artist  suggesting  that  Bona- 
parte did  not  care  for  that  kind  of  conversation. 
To  the  surprise  of  the  Chief  of  Staff,  however, 
Napoleon  took  up  the  subject  and  treated  his 
table  company  to  the  philosophy  he  held  in  regard 
to  this  matter. 

"  There  are  poisons,  doubtless,"  said  the  young 
Corsican,  according  to  Stendhal,  "  but  is  there 
a  remedy  against  them  ?  If  Medicine  were  a 
real  and  an  exact  science,  would  it  not,  in  the  case 
of  sickness,  recommend  repose  as  the  best  thing 
for  one  ?  But  can  there  be  any  repose  for  a  man 
of  my  character  and  disposition  ?  Suppose,  for 
example,  I  was  to  forget  my  duty  so  far  as  to 
hand  over  the  command  of  the  army  to  one  of  my 
generals,  and  go  to  Milan  or  Nice,  I  should  be 
entirely  unable,  at  that  distance  from  my  troops, 
to  judge  of  the  real  effects  of  one  or  more  battles. 
My  blood  would  in  that  case  be  in  far  worse  con- 
dition than  if  I  remained  here  where  I  could  deal 


BONAPARTE'S  RESERVE  257 

directly  with  the  actual  situation.  No ;  a  general 
in  supreme  command  must  take  all  the  risks 
attached  to  his  position,  which  in  their  way  are  not 
dissimilar  from  the  risks  that  are  imposed  on  the 
commonest  grenadier.  Besides,  if  I  lost  my  self- 
respect,  I  should  have  lost  everything,  and  death 
itself  would  be  far  preferable  to  reaching  that 
stage." 

It  was  after  this  somewhat  vague  discourse 
that  Bonaparte  sought  again  to  move  the  young 
artist  to  paint  the  battle-field  of  Rivoli.  Biogi 
again  objected  and  insisted  that  his  forte  lay  in 
landscape  work.  The  Corsican  would  not  be 
denied,  however,  and  finally  Biogi — who  in  order 
to  facilitate  his  work  was  provided  with  an  escort 
by  Berthier — consented  to  paint  the  scene  of  one 
of  Bonaparte's  earliest  masterpieces  of  the  art 
of  war.  In  regard  to  Berthier,  Biogi  tells  that 
he  appeared  to  act  as  nothing  more  than  Bona- 
parte's chief  clerk,  that  he  was  never  consulted 
but  always  given  orders,  and  that  this,  in  the 
majority  of  cases,  was  the  Corsican 's  attitude 
towards  his  subordinates  even  at  that  early  stage 
in  his  career.  For  his  own  part,  the  young  artist 
declared  that,  Bonaparte  and  the  common  soldiery 
excepted,  he  had  no  liking  at  all  for  the  officers, 
high  or  low,  of  the  Army  of  Italy. 

"  I  was  surprised,"  Biogi  is  reported  by  Stendhal 
as  saying,  "  at  the  distant  attitude  of  tlie  General 
commanding  towards  even  his  most  distinguished 
lieutenants.  To  have  exchanged  a  word  with  him 
was  sufficient  to  make  the  conversation  of  a  mess- 


258  BIOGI-aiATEAUBRIAND-STENDHAL 

table  for  a  whole  evening.  So  you  may  imagine 
with  what  envy  I  was  regarded  by  other  men. 
But  I  suppose,"  he  adds  wisely,  "  the  General 
would  have  entirely  changed  his  disposition  to- 
wards me  once  I  had  put  on  the  uniform  he  wished 
me  to  wear." 

Biogi  was  not  singular  among  the  connoisseurs 
in  thinking  rather  meanly  of  Napoleon's  know- 
ledge of  art  matters. 

"  The  General-in-Chief  had  good  enough  in- 
stincts," he  admits,  "  but  had  no  training  what- 
soever in  regard  to  technique  or  the  various 
schools.  He  used,  for  instance,  to  confuse  the 
works  of  Hannibal  Carracci  with  those  of 
Michel -Angelo." 

At  that  date,  we  learn  with  interest,  Gros  was 
executing  his  noted  picture  of  Bonaparte  rushing 
across  the  bridge  of  Areola  with  a  regimental  flag 
in  hand.     Of  this  painter  Biogi  said  : 

"  Gros  is  the  only  artist  who  has  courage 
enough  to  reproduce  the  j^^uvretes — an  artist's 
expression— which  in  those  days  characterised 
the  young  Conqueror  who  had  the  appearance  of 
a  man  already  far  gone  in  consumption.  Only 
Bonaparte's  superhuman  physical  activity  showed 
at  that  period  the  iron  constitution  of  the  soldier. 
His  glance  had  in  it  something  astonishing  :  it 
was  at  once  fixed  and  penetrating,  but  possessed 
nothing  whatever  of  poetic  or  lofty  inspiration. 
His  look  changed  to  one  of  great  tenderness  when- 
ever he  spoke  to  a  woman,  or  whenever  they 
recounted  to  him  some  heroic  action  on  the  part 


M.  LE  VICOMTE  259 

of  a  soldier  of  his  Army.  On  the  whole,  he  was 
a  being  apart  from  all  other  men.  None  of  his 
generals  in  any  way  bore  the  least  resemblance 
to  him.  Lemarrois  had  a  charming  face,  was 
kindly,  and  excellent  company ;  distinguished 
though  he  was,  however,  he  always  looked  like 
an  inferior  being  beside  his  general-in-chief. 
Murat  looked  splendid  on  horseback,  but  there 
was  an  inherent  coarseness  in  his  beauty.  Duphot 
looked  the  man  of  intellect.  Lannes,  alone,  at 
times  reminded  one  of  the  mighty  Corsican. 

"  Bonaparte  was  ever  the  object  of  a  profound 
and  almost  devotional  respect ;  he  was  a  man 
without  peer,  and  everyone  who  entered  his  pres- 
ence felt  this  at  once.  The  women  of  Verona 
almost  fought  to  get  a  sight  of  him  at  the  palace 
of  the  Venetian  Ambassador — a  very  impressive 
individual,  this  functionary,  who,  for  all  his 
pompous  figure,  looked  like  a  schoolboy  in  the 
presence  of  young  Bonaparte." 


Chateaubriand,  it  will  be  remembered,  was 
acting  as  secretary  at  the  Legation  in  Rome  in 
1803,  a  position  which  the  First  Consul  had  given 
him  shortly  after  the  appearance  of  Atala,  a  work 
which  had — very  deservedly,  we  think — won  for 
its  author  an  immediate  renown.  Bonaparte's 
object  in  conferring  office  upon  this  representative 
of  the  vieille  roche  was  a  twofold  one,  inasmuch 
as  the  soldier  assured  himself  at  once  possession 


260  BIOGI- CHATEAUBRIAND- STENDHAL 

of  the  talents  of  a  first-class  writer,  as  well  as  of 
the  services  of  a  member  of  the  order  which  alone 
was  able  to  perform  the  duties  about  a  Court, 
as  he  himself  declared.  Accordingly  Chateau- 
briand, when  his  new-found  fame  had  made  him 
an  object  of  flattering  attention  in  Paris,  received 
his  invitation  to  the  Tuileries  and  was  presented 
to  the  master.  Evidently  the  distinguished  pair 
were  very  much  disappointed  in  each  other,  as 
Talleyrand  might  have  put  it,  for  a  kind  of 
metallic  antipathy — if  one  may  use  such  an 
expression — rendered  their  first  rencontre  any- 
thing but  a  cordial  one,  and  apparently  the 
twain  declared  war  at  sight.  Thereafter  the 
author  went  to  Consular  Court  but  rarely,  and 
on  only  one  of  these  occasions  was  distinguished 
by  a  word  from  the  forbidding  Corsican,  who, 
with  the  object  possibly  of  removing  an  un- 
pleasing  person  from  Paris,  sent  Chateaubriand 
to  Rome.  The  writer,  then  in  poor  circum- 
stances, readily  acquiesced  in  a  promotion  which 
guaranteed  him  sufficient  means  of  indulging  the 
only  sporting  taste  he  possessed — namely,  the 
pursuit  of  Love. 

The  Vicomte,  it  would  seem,  was  one  of  the 
many  very  vain  spirits  of  that  age  who  affected 
to  see  in  the  overwhelming  glory  of  Napoleon  a 
force  which  rivalled  and  precluded  any  possible 
fame  for  themselves  !  From  the  first  day  of  their 
meeting,  says  Maurice  Dreyfous,  the  author  of  the 
Genie  du  Christianisme  pretended  that  Bonaparte 
was  jealous  of  his  success  ;   and  to  the  very  end, 


A  REAL  MASTERPIECE  261 

adds  the  same  authority,  Chateaubriand  was 
obsessed  with  the  idea  that  posterity  would  con- 
sider himself  and  the  Corsican  as  co-rivals  in 
renown  !  The  religious  element  in  France  of  that 
time— Catholic,  where  not  Rationalist,  of  course 
— had  set  great  store  by  the  work  we  have  just 
mentioned,  though  for  what  reason  we  ourselves 
fail  to  see,  since  the  central  idea  of  the  Genie 
tended  to  show  that  Catholicity  made  its  appeal 
almost  wholly  to  the  sensual  instinct  in  its  ad- 
herents— that  is  to  say,  that  the  Roman  Church 
depended  for  its  religious  and  proselytising 
triumphs  in  the  main  on  the  essentially  artistic 
methods  with  which  it  clothed  its  ritual,  and 
on  the  sentimentalism  with  which  it  inspired  its 
teacliings — a  point  of  view  which  no  person  of 
intelligence  can  fail  to  observe  on  perusing  that 
very  much  overrated  production.  Atala,  no 
competent  judge  will  be  found  to  deny,  was  a 
genuine  masterpiece,  and,  had  he  written  nothing 
else,  Chateaubriand  might  have  rightly  based  his 
claim  to  the  recognition  of  posterity  on  the  merits 
of  that  work  alone.  But  to  say  that  he  imagined, 
as  Dreyfous  asserts  he  did,  that  "  his  fame 
entitled  him  to  consider  Napoleon  an  obstruction 
in  the  way  of  his  claims,"  is  to  overlook  altogether 
the  fact  that  Chateaubriand  belonged  to  a  clique 
of  ideologues  who  perfectly  appreciated  all  the 
kudos  that  was  to  be  derived  from  attacking 
so  high-placed  and  successful  a  personage  as 
Napoleon— a  jwocede  connu,  as  we  remember  to 
have  said   in  another  case,  which  has  never  in 


262   BTOGI-CHATEAUBRIAND-STENDHAL 

any  age  escaped  the  watchfulness  of  the  little 
man  in  search  of  the  big  opportunity. 

While  acting  as  Secretary  at  the  Legation  in 
Rome,  his  social  importance  gained  him  the 
acquaintance  of  several  persons  who  belonged  to 
the  circle  of  correspondents  of  Madame  de  Stael — 
at  that  time  engaged,  as  we  have  seen,  in  intrigues 
the  object  of  which  was  the  defeat  of  the  First 
Consul's  plans  for  establishing  the  Empire.  As 
easily  susceptible  to  feminine  influence,  as 
Bonaparte  was  indifferent  to  and  unassailable  by 
it,  Chateaubriand  entered  eagerly  into  the  con- 
spiracy which  sought  to  thwart  Bonapartian 
interests  throughout  Italy.  Napoleon's  emis- 
saries were  not  long  in  discovering  the  political 
dispositions  of  the  author-secretary  at  the 
Legation,  and  accordingly  the  Vicomte  soon 
became  a  marked  man.  Realising  that  he  was 
watched  by  Fouche's  spies,  he  took  advantage 
of  Napoleon's  fateful  blunder  in  executing  the 
Due  d'Enghien,  20th  March  1804,  and  sent  in 
his  resignation,  which,  it  would  seem,  had  only 
anticipated  his  own  dismissal  by  some  hours. 
After  a  few  years'  travel  he  returned  to  Paris, 
where  he  founded  the  still-surviving  Mercure  in 
1806— a  publication  which  proved  itself  a  source 
far  more  of  irritation  than  of  fear  to  the  Emperor, 
who,  we  feel  very  certain,  had  no  illusions  what- 
ever as  to  the  quality  of  the  patriotism  which 
moved  this  hyper-emotional  artist  to  oppose  his 
methods  of  governing  France. 

In  the  famous  posthumous   Memoirs  there  is 


AN  ARTIST'S  OBSESSION  263 

to  be  found  a  very  comprehensive  series  of  the 
Vicomte's  expressions  of  opinion  about  the  great 
Napoleon,  and  the  close  student  will  not  fail  to 
note  Chateaubriand's  total  inability  to  consider 
the  Corsican  as  apart  from  himself  and  his  affected 
anti-Napoleonism,  or  rather  his  anti-Napoleon 
propaganda ;  for  Chateaubriand  opposed  Napoleon 
far  more  than  he  opposed  his  policy,  as  indeed 
also  did  Madame  de  Stael,  Constant  and  a  host  of 
others  of  the  great  self-advertising  circle  of  opposi- 
tion, as  ♦Napoleon  must  have  fully  realised.  In 
truth,  had  the  Emperor  condescended  to  receive 
into  his  intimate  entourage  those  opponents  of 
himself  who  achieved  both  fame  and  capital  from 
their  affected  hostility  to  him,  there  would  not 
have  been  found,  we  feel  convinced,  a  single  in- 
dividual in  the  long  list  of  his  enemies  who  would 
not  have  sold  himself  body  and  soul  to  the  master 
of  Continental  Europe.  Here  are  a  few  of  the 
published  statements  which  indicate  very  clearly 
Chateaubriand's  obsession  regarding  what  he 
considered  to  be  his  rivalry  with  Napoleon  : 
"  He  made  the  world  tremble — but  never  me." 
"  He  saw  kings  in  awe  of  him — but  not  we." 
"  My  Genie  du  Christianisme  had  acted  on 
Napoleon.  ..." 

"  The  murder  of  the  Due  d'Enghien  changed 
my  life.     It  also  changed  Napoleon's." 

"  Napoleon  may  have  done  away  with  Kings. 
He  has  not  done  away  with  ?ne." 

On  one  occasion  he  hears  that  the  Emperor — 
too  great  not  to  be  a  fair-minded  man  when  valid 


264  BIOGI-CHATEAUBRIAND-STENDHAL 

argument  was  advanced  against  him — has  uttered 
a  favourable  view  of  certain  opinions  expressed 
I  in  De  Bonaparte  et  les  Bourbons ;  whereupon 
Chateaubriand  writes  : 

"  Napoleon  would  make  no  peace  with  Kings  ; 
he  sought,  however,  to  make  peace  with  me.'''  ^ 

And  again  :  "  We  were  both  sons  of  the  sea — 
Napoleon  and  myself,  and  I  have  entered  into  his 
spirit  far  more  intimately  than  those  who  have 
lived  at  his  side  " — a  claim  which  certainly  did 
not  die  with  the  Napoleonic  era.  • 


If  anyone  were  to  impose  on  us  the  task  of 
tracing  the  literary  descent  of  Henri  Beyle,  alias 
Stendhal,  we  should  have  no  difficulty  whatever 
in  ascribing  his  intellectual  origin  to  the  declara- 
tion of  Luther.  And  we  should  argue  that  the 
revolt  which  rent  the  system  of  reasoned — and 
in  some  degree  philanthropic  —  obscurantism 
followed  by  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  introduced 
the  notion  of  self-sufficing  Protestantism,  in- 
evitably brought  in  its  train  a  school  of  philo- 
sophic partisans  who  made  their  direct  appeal 
to  the  spiritual  or  intellectual  pride  of  men.  The 
scientific  rationalism  of  the  Encyclopaedists  was 
one  of  the  first  effects  of  the  great  Lutheran  cause 
in  France  ;  the  revival  of  Letters  in  Germany, 
which  eventually  reached  its  height  with  Goethe 
— and  finally  degenerated  into  Nietzschism — was 

'^^  ^  Miiiioires  d' Oiitre-Tonibe. 


MONSIEUR  DE  STENDHAL  265 

another  of  the  great  movements  towards  enlighten- 
ment which  were,  in  the  main,  a  revolt  against 
clericalism  and  clerical  influences ;  Rousseau, 
Voltaire,  Goethe,  Byron — these  were  the  greater 
spirits  that  inspired  writers  like  Stendhal,  and 
later  the  apostle  of  the  Superman,  and  having  in 
mind  the  lengths  to  which,  in  its  modern  develop- 
ment, especially  in  Germany,  ultra-individualistic 
theories  have  carried  the  world,  we  cannot  but 
uncover  before  the  prophetic  spirit  of  Napoleon, 
who  said  of  Rousseau  that  history  would  show 
whether  it  had  not  been  better  for  mankind  if 
such  a  man  had  never  existed. 

Stendhal  owed  his  association  with  the  Corsican 
to  the  fact  that  he  was  connected  with  the  family 
of  Daru,  an  able  servant  of  Napoleon,  who  pro- 
cured him  an  official  position  in  the  financial 
department  of  the  government  under  the  Empire. 
He  had  been  present  as  a  member  of  the  com- 
missarial  suite  at  the  battle  of  Marengo  at  the 
age  of  seventeen,  and  enlisted  subsequently  in  a 
dragoon  regiment,  rather,  as  he  admits  himself, 
because  of  his  ambition  to  be  able  afterwards  to 
say  that  he  had  served  in  the  legions  of  the 
Emperor,  than  from  any  love  of  a  military  career. 
Beyle,  who  subsequently  adopted  the  nom  de 
guerre  of  Stendhal,  assuming  ultimately,  as  Cam 
Hobhouse  tells  us  with  some  suggestion  of 
ridicule,  the  title  of  Comte  de  Stendhal,  was  in 
his  earliest  manhood  a  fervent  admirer  of  Napoleon 
and  all  that  the  Corsican  stood  for.  So  fervent 
an   admirer,  indeed,   of  the  mighty   conqueror's 


266  BIOGI-CHATEAUBRIAND-STENDHAL 

method  of  imposing  himself  and  his  ideas  upon  the 
world,  that  the  heroes  of  the  two  works  which 
keep  Stendhal's  memory  alive  are  made,  on 
setting  out  upon  their  worldly  careers,  to  adopt 
a  philosophy  of  life  which  is  based  wholly  on  an 
absence  either  of  moral  scruple  or  of  altruistic 
sentiment.  Even  in  1837,  at  the  age  of  fifty- 
four,  when  a  man's  emotions,  we  presume,  are 
governed  by  his  self-criticism,  Stendhal  could 
write  of  the  idol  of  his  earlier  days  that  only  one 
man  had  up  till  then  won  his  entire  respect,  and 
that  man — Napoleon. 

What  Stendhal  has  to  say  concerning  the  dis- 
position of  ^the  people  towards  Napoleon  and  his 
new-founded  Empire  in  1804  is  of  considerable 
interest,  in  view  of  the  claims  of  the  Bonapartist 
faction  that  the  new  Emperor  was  acclaimed 
throughout  France  with  an  absolute  unanimity. 
According  to  his  version.  Napoleon's  popularity 
with  the  masses  remained  very  much  in  question 
until  after  the  battle  of  Austerlitz.  Up  till  the 
banishment  of  Moreau  in  1804,  the  \dctor  of 
Hohenlinden,  he  says,  easily  disputed  the  affec- 
tions of  the  people  of  France  with  the  Corsican, 
and  it  was  the  consciousness  of  this  fact  which  had 
moved  Bonaparte  to  exile  his  great  soldier  rival. 
Even  after  the  official  announcement — 18th  May 
1804 — that  the  First  Consul  was  to  assume  the 
Imperial  title,  a  large  section  of  the  people  of 
Paris  was  unfavourable  to  Bonaparte's  ambition. 
On  12th  July  of  the  same  year,  Stendhal  tells, 
the    Emperor-elect    attended    one    of    the    first 


THE  EMPRESS  EUGENIE  267 

representations  of  Les  Bardes,  of  which  work  we 
have  spoken  elsewhere.  A  full  house  at  the  Opera 
meant,  he  goes  on,  receipts  amounting  as  a  rule 
to  12,000  francs.  That  evening,  although  the 
theatre  was  comjDletely  filled,  the  management 
took  only  6000  francs  at  the  box  offices,  which 
went  to  prove  (says  Stendhal)  that  Bonaparte 
himself  had  "  bought "  the  house.  He  was 
received  with  great  acclamation  on  this  occasion, 
be  it  noted.  On  the  day  following,  the  Emperor 
visited  the  Comedie  Fran9aise,  where  Iphigenia 
was  being  staged,  and  his  presence  passed  entirely 
unnoticed.  Stendhal  is  also  authority  for  the 
statement  that  even  on  his  coronation  day  few 
were  found  to  acclaim  the  Emperor  and  Empress 
with  any  cordiality  as  they  passed  through  the 
streets  of  their  capital.  All  of  which  goes,  we  think, 
to  show  that  Stendhal's  impartiality  was  quite 
independent  of  his  admiration  for  the  Corsican. 

His  direct  relations  with  Napoleon  began  in 
1807,  some  months  after  the  entry  of  the  Emperor 
into  Berlin  as  a  result  of  Jena,  and  Stendhal  wrote 
a  description  of  that  event  thirty  years  later  to  a 
young  Spanish  lady,  then  but  a  chikl,  a  Senorita 
Eugenie  Guzman  y  Palafox,  whom  the  present 
world  knows  as  the  ex-Empress  of  the  French. 
We  are  given  very  little  information,  however, 
as  to  the  nature  of  his  labours  with  Napoleon — so 
little,  indeed,  that  his  enemies  often  declared 
the  co-operation  of  the  soldier  and  the  author  to 
have  been  a  fantasy  of  the  latter's  bright  imagina- 
tion.    Stendhal  himself  declared  that  his  silence 


f      268  BIOGI- CHATEAUBRIAND- STENDHAL 

5      on  the  point  arose  from  his  resolve  not  to  com- 
^     promise  himself  by  telling  all  he  might  have  told. 
T     There  is  no  doubt,  however,  that  Napoleon  en- 
3     trusted  him  once  with  the  duty  of  levying  a  five- 
T      million   war  indemnity   on  Brunswick,    and  the 
'^      author-financier    proved    his   good    will   towards 
\^    the  Imperial  patron  by  raising  seven  millions.     He 
^      claimed  also — perhaps  with  the  facile  mendacious- 
ness  of  the  megalomaniac  who  has  once  entered 
the  presence — to  have  participated  in  the  negotia- 
tions which  led  to  the  alliance  between  Napoleon 
and    the    Archduchess    Marie    Louise.     Extant 
documents  make,  however,  no  mention  of  his  name 
in  this   important   connection.     Nevertheless  his 
name  is  on  the  list  of   accepted  courtiers,   and 
^  I  ^  like  the  first-class  temperamentalist  he  is,  Stendhal 
f  omits  no  opportunity  of  informing  us  of  the  fact  : 
-  he  is  presented  to  Marie  Louise  by  the  Duchesse 
de  Montebello   and   is  a   constant   attendant   at 
the  Imperial  receptions.     Napoleon  charged  him, 
^^  during  the  tragic  retreat  from  Moscow,  with  the 
I  ^  provisioning  of  several  army  corps,  and  entrusted 
S  P  him,  about  the  same  time,  with  a  sum  of  three 
^     l^^lnillion    roubles    (£300,000)    for    "  a    particular 
J  service."    The  nature  of  this  service  Stendhal  does 
not  state,  though   we   think   ourselves   that  the 
money  was  probably  to  be  conveyed  to  Madame 
Walewska — in  those  days  Napokon's  most  trusted 
friend  and  the  mother  of  two* sons  by  him — as 
a  provision  against  the  difficult  times  which,  we 
,     correctly  suppose,  the  mathematical  mind  of  the 
^  Corsican  then  very  clearly  foresaw. 


"  SOUL  OF  AN  ARMY  "  269 

Stendhal  gives  us,  from  his  own  intimate 
experience,  an  accomit  of  the  "  soul "  of  the 
Napoleonic  military  system  which  w^e  do  not 
remember  to  have  read  elsewhere,  and  which 
can  hardly  fail  to  prove  interesting  in  these  days 
of  martial  gest.  As  one  who  had  served  in  the 
Grand  Army,  who  had  powerful  comiections,  and 
who  might  well  have  aspired  to  liigh  promotion, 
Stendhal,  nevertheless,  confessed  himself  entirely 
disgusted  with  the  "  intimate  souls  "  (interieurs 
d'dmes)  of  the  military  men  he  had  met  with 
and  whom  he  describes  as  "  dull-witted  sword- 
trailers."  No  man  saw  more  of  Imperial 
officialdom  than  himself,  and  no  man  was  more  • 
sensible  of  the  "  insolence  and  essential  depend- 
ency and  stupidity  of  Napoleon's  servants  " — 
the  real  agents  of  the  fall  of  the  Empire,  as  he  / 
declared.  Nevertheless,  he  holds,  Napoleon  is 
the  greatest  man  whom  France  has  produced, 
and  a  tithe  of  the  glory  the  Corsican  achieved  will 
suffice,  he  is  certain,  to  discount  whatever  of 
iniquity  his  system  disclosed.  The  imperishable 
glory  of  the  Napoleonic  legend  is,  he  writes,  the 
enduring  heritage  of  the  people  of  France  who, 
as  a  result  of  the  Imperial  wars,  have  learned 
that  a  personal  cachet  has  impressed  itself  for 
all  time  on  the  very  name  of  Frenchman.  And  if 
a  patriotic  unity  in  the  face  of  hostile  nations 
has  discovered  itself  in  France,  it  is  Napoleon's 
achievement  wliich  has  called  it  forth.  He  up- 
braids the  Emperor  for  liis  weakness  on  the 
days  succeeding  Waterloo,  when  he  should  (says 


270  BIOGI-CHATEAUBRIAND-STENDHAL 

Stendhal)  have  declared  himself  Dictator.  For 
all  his  senseless  ambition,  however,  posterity  will 
tell  for  all  time  the  tale  of  the  great  Emperor, 
and  his  enemies  will  succeed  in  interweaving  their 
names  in  his  august  legend  solely  because  they 
had  been  his  enemies. 

But,  alas  for  Stendhal's  emotionalism.  With 
the  vaingloriousness  so  common  to  the  artistic 
literary  man,  Stendhal  declares  in  1816  :  "  /  fell 
with  Napoleon,"  and  goes  on  to  show  that  the 
condition  of  his  private  fortune  justifies  him 
in  revising  his  somewhat  ecstatic  devotion  for 
the  fallen  Corsican.  Primo  j^cmem,  deinde  philo- 
sophari  is  a  sound  literary  man's  motto,  and 
towards  the  end  of  the  year  1817  Stendhal, 
forced  to  a  realisation  of  its  truth,  begins  to 
contemplate  Napoleon  from  the  point  of  view 
of  a  Bourbonist  in  search  of  office.  Under  tliis 
venal  analysis  Napoleon  shrivels  to  the  propor- 
tions of  a  rather  ordinary  greatness :  It  was 
the  littleness  of  his  contemporaries  which  really 
contributed  to  the  glory  of  Napoleon.  Had  other 
countries  had  their  Hannibals  and  their  Scipios 
and  their  Caesars,  tilings  would  have  gone  far 
differently.  He  was  a  badly  educated  man,  was 
Napoleon — Stendhal  now  thinks;  he  really  was 
ever  an  aristocrat  at  heart  and  his  founding  of 
the  Legion  of  Honour  should  have  proved  to 
France  the  real  character  of  the  hero  of  1800. 
Above  all.  Napoleon  feared  the  priests — a 
characteristic  born  of  liis  elementally  Latin 
nature.     Even  as  a  politician    he  showed  little 


"  NAPOLEON  OUR  RELIGION  "       271 

talent  when  the  support  of  the  sword  was  want- 
ing, and  honest  investigation  showed  that  the 
Corsican  had  destroyed  the  sentiment  of  liberty 
in  France.  The  explanation  of  all  of  wliich 
becomes  clearer  when  we  discover  that  a  few 
months  after  penning  the  above  opinions, 
Stendhal  seeks  to  show  that  his  loyalty  to 
the  Bourbons  had  never  faltered  during  the 
"  absence  "  of  Louis  XVIII.  between  March  and 
June,  1815. 

The  final  recantation  was  to  come,  as  we  might 
indeed  expect  from  so  emotional  a  character ; 
and  Stendhal  touched  a  deeper  truth  than  he 
himself  probably  suspected  when  he  contributed 
his  final  explanation  of  the  Corsican  and  his 
hypnotic  influence  on  that  heroic  age,  in  the 
sentence  : 

Napoleon  was  our  only  religion."         s. 


CHAPTER  XVI 
IMPERIAL   OFFICIAL   THEATRE 


One  of  Napoleon  s  Chief  Ambitions — Instructions  to 
Champagny — Authors  and  their  Rights — Assurance 
of  Remuneration —  Where  Napoleon  failed — Imperial 
Art  mediocre — Limitations  of  Patronage— Genius 
discovers  itself— Always  its  own  Patron — Imperial 
Epoch  unfavourable  to  Art — Some  Liberal  Awards — 
Tragedy,  not  Comedy — The  T hedtre-F ran(^ais — Decree 
of  Moscow — Napoleon  a  Real  Benefactor — Schools  of 
Dramatic  Art — His  Liberality  to  the  Histrions — 
TJie  Dresden  Bill— His  Practical  Patronage — His 
Friends  among  the  I lluminati—Did  lie  like  Artists  ? — 
Remarks  by  Rhnusat — After  Marengo — A  Line  from 
Cinna—The  Mmder  of  Enghien 


I 


HENRY  LECOMTE,  in  his  Napoleon  et 
le  Monde  Dramatique,  relates  how  the 
Emperor  once  declared  to  Champagny 
that  one  of  his  chief  ambitions  as  a 
sovereign  was  to  be  able  to  reward  the  composer 
of  a  really  great  tragedy. 

"  You,  Champagny,"  said  the  Corsican,  "  are 
head  of  the  literary  establishment  of  the  Empire. 
Literature  needs  encouragement,  and  I  charge 
you  with  the  duty  of  finding  out  and  suggesting 
to  me  all  possible  ways  and  means  of  discovering 
a  literary  genius  who  shall  do  honour  to  my 
reign." 

With  this  object  in  mind,  he  made  it  one  of  the 
first  cares  of  his  regime  to  take  under  his  especial 
protection  the  rights  of  authors  and  composers  in 
regard  to  their  literary  and  musical  works. 

"  If  such  a  thing  as  property  really  exists,"  said 
the  Emperor,  "  it  must  surely  lie  in  the  ideas  and 
inventions  issuing  from  the  brain  of  artists  and 
literary  men.  For  what  property  can  be  more 
personal  or  more  intimate  ?  " 

Accordingly,  it  was  decreed  that  every  dramatic 
or  operatic  work  should  be  subsidised  from  official 
appropriations — apart  from  royalties  arising  from 
representation — for  every  separate  occasion  on 
which  it  was  staged,  the  minimum  official  award 
being  £12  a  night  for  every  staging  for  the  first 
twenty  nights,  and  £8  up  to  the  fortieth,  when 
an  especial  bonus  of,  at  the  lowest,  £20,  was  paid 
to  the  author.  If  any  particular  piece  did  not, 
of  its  enacting,  occupy  a  normal  evening  on  the 

274 


GENIUS  ITS  OWN  PATRON  275 

stage,  and  if  supplementa  in  the  way  of  ballet  or 
concert  were  found  to  be  necessary,  a  reduction 
of  about  one-third  was  effected  on  the  author's 
official  reward,  the  bonus  after  the  fortieth  night 
remaining,  however,  in  all  cases.  The  authors 
were  thus  positively  assured  of  receiving  a  sub- 
stantial enough  remuneration  for  their  intellectual 
labours,  and  were  furthermore  protected  against 
unscrupulous  theatrical  managers.  All  these 
promulgations  dated  from  1802. 

For  all  his  willing  encouragement,  however, 
Napoleon  cannot  be  said  to  have  nearly  approached 
the  success  attending  on  the  official  patronage  of 
Louis  XIV.  or  Louis  XV.,  and  Laugier,  a  French 
writer,  voices  the  opinion  of  the  majority  of  the 
connaisseurs,  we  think,  when  he  declares  that  the 
French  drama  during  the  Empire,  like  all  the 
other  Arts  of  the  same  period,  was  entirely  lacking 
in  anything  like  a  superior  cachet.  Great  men, 
he  says,  with  truth,  may  found  great  institutions, 
but  they  cannot  endow  others  with  the  genius 
that  Nature  has  withheld  ;  objective  or  interested 
inspiration  invariably  ceases  at  the  threshold  of 
the  atelier  or  the  study,  and  all  the  prodigality^  of 
Napoleon  towards  those  artistic  spirits  whom  he 
thought  likely,  through  their  productions,  to  add 
resplendency  to  the  glory  of  his  reign  resulted  only 
in  a  very  obvious  mediocrity.  Supreme  artistic 
ability  discovers  itself,  as  a  rule,  long  before  the 
patronage  which  venally  seeks  to  exploit  it,  and 
Napoleon's  good  will  and  inspiration  were  no  more 
equal  to  the  forcing  of  a  mind  like  that  of  Corneille 


276      IlVrPERlAL  OFFICIAL  THEATRE 

than  they  were  capable  of  creating  a  Kembrandt 
or  a  Murillo.     And  so  the  most  glorious  reign  in 
the  long  history  of  France  was  unable  to  show 
one  single  masterpiece  for  its  existence. 
^      The  French  writer  goes  on  to  account  for  this 
1  failure  on  other  grounds  :   a  vast  society  had,  he 
\  says,  to  be  reconstructed  from  the  ruins  of  the 
j  Revolution,  and  the  generation  which  had   en- 
/  gaged  in  one  long  Homeric  conflict  with  Europe 
in  arms  was  unlikely  to  father  an  era  of  supreme 
/      artists,  a  race  of  beings  who  are  born  of  peace 
V       rather  than  of  war.     Again,  ambitious   men  of 
the  age  sought  the  fruition  of  their  aspirations  in 
the  Imperial  armies,  in  the  Imperial  judiciary,  in 
the  State's  councils,  and  the  fine  arts  attracted 
only  minds  of  second-class  rating — an  inevitable 
result  of  all  militaristic  autocracies,  as  Confeder- 
ated Germany  has,  we  think,  more  than  proved 
in  our  own  time. 

In  1804  Napoleon  officially  announced  prizes 
of  10,000  and  5000  francs  respectively  for  a 
tragedy  and  a  comedy,  the  excellence  of  which 
should  satisfy  an  official  Imperial  jury  appointed 
to  make  the  awards.  Raynouard  was  successful 
in  obtaining  the  prize  of  10,000  francs  for  his 
traged}-,  Les  Teinpliers,  while  the  award  for 
comedy  was  not  made,  the  reason  given  for  with- 
holding tliis  burse  being  that  although  the 
comedies  showed  sufficient  talent,  the  Emperor 
wished  above  all  things  to  encourage  Tragedy — 
in  the  vain  hope,  we  easily  divine,  of  unearthing 
some  Corneille  who  should  add  lustre  to  the  name 


LE  THEATRE-FRANgAlS  277 

of  Napoleon  and  his  Age.  Despite  the  fact  that 
the  official  jury  advised  the  encouragement  of 
Comedy,  on  the  ground  that  the  comic  play- 
wrights were  much  farther  behind  Moliere  than 
the  tragedians  were  behind  Kacine  and  Voltaire, 
the  supreme  authority  at  the  Tuileries  declined 
to  alter  his  decision,  and  so  Comedy  went  un- 
rewarded and  unencouraged. 

The  famous  Imperial  Decree  that  gave  to  the 
Theatre-Franyais  the  perfect  organisation  which 
governs  that  institution  to.  this  day,  was  dictated 
from  Moscow,  16th  October  1812.  This  act  of 
Napoleon,  says  Laugier,  in  effect,  is  one  of  the 
imperishable  and  constructive  benefits  vnth  which 
the  great  Emperor  endowed  modern  France,  to 
the  rebuilding  and  permanent  moulding  of  which 
he  so  largely  contributed.  By  an  earlier  decree  of 
January,  1803,  he  had  given  the  French  Theatre 
its  commercial  or  practical  organisation.  The 
Decree  of  Moscow  definitely,  and  probably  for  all 
time,  fixed  its  administrative  constitution,  iind, 
adds  Laugier,  if  the  Imperial  epoch  was  poor  in 
dramatic  literature  produced  during  the  reign,  it 
is  equally  certain  that  it  has  never  been  excelled 
in  respect  of  the  technical  art  of  the  official  ex- 
ponents of  the  French  Theatre.  What  execution  ! 
What  perfection  in  the  interpretation  of  our  im- 
mortal masterpieces  !  Moreover,  it  is  to  the  last- 
ing merit  of  Napoleon  that  while  he  assembled  the 
greatest  galaxy  of  dramatic  actors  and  actresses 
that  France  has  yet  known,  he  also  provided  for 
future  generations  by  founding  schools  of  dramatic 


278      IMPERIAL  OFFICIAL  THEATRE 

art  which  now  form  part  and  parcel  of  Europe's 
most  artistic  nation. 

On  the  occasion  of  the  journey  to  Erfurt, 
Napoleon  distributed  some  £1500  among  the  half- 
dozen  actors  who  went  thither  with  him.  When 
a  similar  excursion  was  made  to  Dresden  by  the 
Comedie  Frangaise,  in  1813,  a  much  larger  sum 
was  expended  in  rewarding  the  artists  for  their 
services.  Monsieur  Laugier  gives  the  items  in 
connection  with  that  visit,  as  follows  : — 


Desprez 
Saint-Prix 
Talma 
Mile  George 
Fleury 
Saint-Fal    . 
Michot 
Baptiste     . 
Arm  and 
Thenard     . 
Vigny 
Michelot     . 


6,000  frs. 
6,000 
8,000 
8,000 

10,000 

6,000 
4,000 
6,000 
6,000 
4,000 
6,000 
4,000 


Barbier 

IVnie  Thenard     . 

Mile  Cental 

Mile  M^zeray     . 

Mile  Mars 

Mile  Bourgoin    . 

M.  Maignien 

Brothers  Frechot 

Colson 

Combre 

Bouillon    . 

Mongellas 


3,000  frs. 

4,000  ,, 

6,000  ,, 

4,000  „ 

10,000  „ 

6,000  ,, 

2,000  ,, 

1,500  " 

500  „ 

500  ,, 

500  „ 

500  „ 


The  Emperor  insisted  on  his  family  and  the  high 
functionaries  of  the  State  maintaining  their  loges 
at  the  first  theatre  in  his  capital.  For  his  own 
box  he  paid  21,000  francs,  or  £840 ;  Queen 
Hortense,  his  step-daughter,  paid  £145  for  hers  ; 
Berthier,  £340  ;  Talleyrand,  £360  ;  King  Joseph, 
£420  ;  Prince  Lucien,  £310  ;  Madame  Recamier, 
£280  ;    Bernadotte,  £150. 

According  to  Monsieur  Lecomte,  the  Emperor 
was  accustomed  to  receive  his  favourite  artists  at 


FJU'Cvt^rtipJt :  Anaerson 


l)Ai:i)AI.rS   AND    ICARLS 
Bv  Canow, 


SOME  AKTIST-VISITORS  279 

the  Tuileries  during  first-breakfast,  or  about  nine 
o'clock,  this  hour  corresponding — in  his  case,  as  a 
working  sovereign — to  the  levee  of  the  old  French 
monarchs.  Rarely  did  this  meal  exceed  fifteen 
minutes  in  duration,  though  when  exceptionally 
interesting  visitors  presented  themselves.  Napoleon 
would  graciously  surrender  his  precious  time  to 
illuminati  Hke  Monge,  Bertholet,  Costaz,  Denon, 
Corvisart,  David,  Gerard,  Isabey,  Talma,  Fon- 
taine and  others,  saying,  as  was  his  custom  : 

"  Gentlemen,  my  cabinet  is  closed  for  the  time 
being.     Let  us  talk." 

And  the  Emperor  invariably  talked  more  than 
anyone  else. 

Lecomte  affects  to  believe  that  the  Corsican 
entertained  sentiments  of  good  will  for  the  artistic 
brotherhood,  a  point  of  view  which  we  have  dealt 
with  elsewhere,  and  disproved,  we  think.  Once, 
according  to  this  authority,  he  accused  [Monsieur 
de  Lugay,  an  eminent  official  of  his  palace,  with 
having  slighted  some  of  the  actors  who  had 
business  with  him. 

"Do  you  know,"  he  is  alleged  to  have  told  the 
forbidding  Luyay,  "  a  talent,  no  matter  what  its 
nature,  is  a  veritable  power  in  the  world,  and  I 
make  a  point,  myself,  of  never  omitting  to  salute 
Talma  when  I  meet  him." 

Monsieur  de  Remusat,  who  is  responsible  for 
this  detail,  takes  care  to  add  that  Napoleon,  in 
making  the  remark,  meant  not  the  least  word  of 
it.  The  Emperor  was,  says  the  Comte,  kind  and 
cordial  towards  artists  of  all  kinds  who  showed  an 


280      IMPERIAL  OFFICIAL  THEATRE 

unquestioning  devotion  to  himself  and  his  ways  of 
thinking — who,  en  somme,  allowed  themselves  to 
be  taught,  and  who  never  contradicted  him.  It 
was  only,  concludes  Monsieur  de  Remusat,  when 
he  became  a  great  personage,  that  Napoleon 
forced  himself  to  take  an  interest  in  matters  which 
up  till  that  time  had  given  him  no  concern  what- 
ever. Even  as  regards  Talma,  it  always  seemed 
to  close  observers  that  he  felt  the  actor's  renown 
rather  than  his  artistic  greatness. 

"At  all  periods  of  his  life,"  insists  Lecomte, 
notwithstanding  the  scepticism  of  M.  de  Remusat, 
"  Napoleon  displayed  a  profound  interest  in 
everything  connected  with  actors  and  acting." 
On  the  day  after  the  battle  of  Marengo,  he  recalls, 
the  First  Consul  spent  an  hour  walking  up  and 
down  a  small  vineyard  surrounding  his  military 
headquarters.  An  aide-de-camp  approached  with 
a  dispatch,  and  Bonaparte,  awakened  as  from  a 
deep  reverie,  astounded  the  officer  with  a  long 
quotation  from  La  Mort  de  Pompee : 

J'ai  servi,  commande,  vaincu  quarante  annees, 
Du  monde  entre  mes  mains  j'ai  vu  les  destinees  ; 
Et  j'ai  toujours  connu  qu'en  tout  evenement 
Le  destin  des  Etats  dependait  d'un  moment," 

On  the  fateful  night  of  20th  March  1804,  when 
he  decides  to  sign  the  order  for  the  murder  of  the 
Due  d'Enghien,  he  is  heard  to  whisper  the  words 
spoken  by  Augustus,  in  Cinna  : 

"  Soyons  amis,  Cinna,  c'est  moi  que  t'en  convie  ..." 


L'AIGLON  281 

And  on  the  same  tragical  eve,  the  lines  from 
Alzire  : 

"  Des  dieux  que  nous  sen^ons,  connais  la  difference  : 
Les  tiens  t'ont  commande  le  meurtre  et  la  vengeance  ; 
Et  le  mien  quand  ton  bras  vient  de  m'assassiner, 
M'ordonne  de  te  plaindre  et  de  te  pardonner." 

After  the  battle  of  La  Rothiere,  during  the  cam- 
paign of  France,  in  1814,  he  writes  to  his  brother 
Joseph  : 

"  I  should  prefer  to  see  my  son  strangled  than 
to  think  of  him  being  brought  up  in  Vienna  in 
the  midst  of  my  enemies.  ...  I  have  never  yet 
witnessed  Andromache  without  pitying  the  fate 
of  Astyanax,  whom  I  always  thought  happy  in 
not  surviving  his  father." 


CHAPTER  XVII 
CONCLUSION 

Kircheisens  Bibliography  of  Napoleon — One  Book 
wanting — The  Temperamental  Aspect  of  Bonaparte 
—  The  ''  Napoleon  "  Test  of  Nationality — A  Modern 
Imitator — The  Imperishable  Corsican 


A  SENSE  of  decency  compels  us  to  admit 
that  any  man  who  produces  a  Napoleon 
book,  in  these  days,  owes  it  to  the  public 
to  explain  the  fact,  and  we  willingly  give 
our  own  reasons  for  the  present  performance — all 
the  more  so,  indeed,  because  we  have  fully  read 
and  fairly  digested  our  Kircheisen,  and  know  what 
that  voluminous  bibliographer  of  the  Napoleoniad 
has  to  say  about  the  Grand  Library  of  books 
and  publications  which  deal  with  the  Emperor  and 
his  coruscating  legend.  Here,  in  effect,  is  what 
Kircheisen  will  tell  the  inquirer  in  those  two 
plump  tomes  which  any  wight  may  wade  through 
with  much  instruction  to  himself : 

(1)  The  number  of  individual  books  which  record 
the  story  of  Napoleon  and  his  Age  must  now  be 
counted  by  the  tens  of  hundreds. 

(2)  Separate  magazine  and  newspaper  articles, 
born  of  the  same  heroic  inspiration,  have  been 
written  and  published  in  their  tens  of  thousands. 

(3)  If  all  the  publishers'  archives  and  the 
editorial  and  contributors'  files  of  all  the  peri- 
odicals of  all  the  nations  could  be  assembled  and 
given  shelf -room,  it  would  be  found  that  Napoleon 
already  plays  a  capital  role  in  at  least  two  hundred 
thousand  books,  ecrits  divers,  reviews,  turnovers, 
special  articles  and  sundry  other  papers  which 
have  been  committed  to  breathing  type,  at  one  time 
or  another,  by  professional  or  amateur  scribes. 

It  is  clear  from  all  this,  therefore,  that  the  writer 
is  under  some  obHgation  to  explain  the  reason  of 
the  present  book  : 

284 


THE  ETERNAL  CORSICAN  285 

A  few  years  back  an  old  fellow-student,  writing 
from  India,  asked  us  to  verify  some  expressions 
of  opinion  by  Napoleon  on  literary  and  art  matters, 
in  respect  of  which  our  exile  in  Hindustan  had  no 
reference  books  at  hand.  In  order  to  obtain  the 
required  opinions  it  was  found  necessary  to  con- 
sult some  score  of  books  in  the  Reading-Room  of 
the  British  Museum.  The  idea  then  "  developed," 
as  they  say  in  America,  that  a  separate  book 
might  excusably  be  put  together  treating  of  the 
temperamental  side  of  Napoleon,  as  indicated 
by  the  great  soldier's  heredity,  his  education,  liis 
reading,  his  literary,  dramatic  and  art  leanings, 
and  his  religion.  Such  a  book  in  anything  like 
complete  form  had  not  in  EngUsh — nor  indeed 
in  French,  German  or  Italian — as  yet  come  into 
being.  The  facts  might  certainly  be  found  in  a 
large  library  of  volumes,  by  well-known  writers, 
dealing  with  the  Eternal  Corsican ;  but  not  with 
any  completeness  in  any  single  volume  which  the 
writer  has  yet  succeeded  in  discovering. 

Master-students  of  Napoleon,  like  Mr  Holland 
Rose,  the  Earl  of  Rosebery  and  Monsieur  A. 
Guillois  have — all  serious  readers  are  aware — 
thrown  much  light  on  the  mind  and  character  of 
the  immense  Man  of  Destiny,  by  touching  on  such 
intimate  personal  details,  in  works  which  have 
now  become  classics.  These  works  were  not, 
however,  devoted  specifically  to  a  presentment 
of  Napoleon  considered  almost  wholly  from  his 
temperamental  aspect.  Our  own  endeavour  has 
been  to  trace  the  mighty  Corsican  from  this  point 


286  CONCLUSION 

of  consideration,  and  in  one  brief  volume,  by- 
dealing  with  his  superabounding  chronicle  in  a 
series  of  chapters  which  have  treated 

(1)  of  his  genealogy  ; 

(2)  of  his  early  schooling  ; 

(3)  of  his  particular  reading  as  a  student  and 
his  general  reading  as  a  man  ; 

(4)  of  his  tastes  in  drama  and  music  ; 

(5)  of  his  associations  with  men  and  women 
connected  with  the  theatre  ; 

(6)  of  his  predilections  in  painting  and  sculpture ; 

(7)  of  his  literary  bent  and  his  connections  and 
dealings  with  literary  personages  ; 

(8)  of  his  understanding,  or  rather  misunder- 
standing, of  the  functions  of  that  important 
half -art  which  we  call  journalism ; 

(9)  and,  finally,  of  his  religious  beliefs — which 
last,  we  are  permanently  satisfied,  were  based 
solely  on  political  expediency  and  were  really 
atheistic. 

A  study  of  all  these  conditions,  it  may  reason- 
ably be  supposed,  must  add  something  to  the 
explanation  of  a  personality  which  has  proved 
itself  at  once  one  of  the  simplest  and  one  of  the 
most  complex  in  the  list  of  the  world's  great  men. 

We  are  a  long  way  from  classing  ourselves 
among  the  detractors  of  the  mighty  Corsican,  as  is 
the  fashion  nowadays  among  many  who  derive 
their  conceptions  of  Napoleon,  his  personality  and 
his  oeuvre,  from  handbooks,  or  from  romances 
which  present  Bonaparte  as  a  central  figure.  We 
hold  that  if  a  conscious  Providence  exists,  Napoleon 


THE  NAPOLEON  BIAS  287 

was  assuredly  an  instrument  of  its  will.  At  the 
same  time  we  are  equally  far  from  thinking  that 
he  can  be  classed  among  the  great  spirits  of  the 
world,  and  we  have  arrived  at  the  opinion  that 
the  student  of  history,  in  classifying  the  over- 
whelming personalities  of  the  ages,  will  find  him- 
self forced  to  discriminate  between  great  spirits 
and  great  men  of  action.  A  Lincoln,  a  Gladstone 
— here  assuredly  great  spirits.  A  Napoleon,  a 
Bismarck — arch-pragmatists,  if  ever.  No  ;  the 
spirit  of  pure  philanthropy  is  altogether  wanting 
in  these. 

Certainly,  too,  we  have  long  since  reached  the  con- 
viction that  Napoleon  could  never  have  imposed 
himself  and  his  reclame  on  any  race  of  Anglo-Saxon 
men — or  even  on  a  sane  Germany- — in  any  modern 
age,  in  any  political  circumstance,  or  with  all  his 
achievements  multipKed  by  ten,  in  the  same  way 
as  he  succeeded  in  imposing  his  iron  personality 
on  a  temperamental  race  whose  greater  spirits 
had  gone  under  in  that  bloody  Revolution  which 
made  his  career  a  possibility.  Indeed  we  have 
found  by  experience  that  the  bias  in  favour  of,  or 
against  Napoleon  provides  a  satisfactory  enough 
test  of  a  man's  nationality  and  character — whether 
he  be  a  true  Anglo-Saxon,  a  true  Kelt,  a  true 
Latin,  a  true  Teuton,  and  of  the  type  of  rigid  and 
self-disciplined  men  who — to  adapt  Goethe — will 
drink  no  foreign  wine. 

And  yet,  for  all  the  sordid  materialism  that 
underlies  the  epic  of  Napoleon,  it  must  be 
conceded   that   it   remains   one   of    the    moving 


288  CONCLUSION 

inspirations  of  all  time.  That  great  age  of  lustred 
exploit  and  adventure  was,  when  the  worst  is  said, 
insi^ired  and  led  by  one  the  supremacy  of  whose 
heroic  mind  was  clear  and  incontestable  as  the 
limpid  logic  of  its  action  and  effect.  And  when 
in  these  days  we  contemplate  the  halting  and 
convulsive  performance  of  the  puny  histrion  who 
would  fain  play  the  role  of  Avorld-conqueror, 
vainly  seeking  to  impress  itself  and  its  foul 
mission  upon  the  mocking  hemispheres,  then,  in 
truth,  we  of  the  unconquered  Islands  may  well 
admit,  with  reverence  of  mind,  if  not  of  heart, 
the  vast  measure  of  our  most  formidable  foe,  the 
mighty  Corsican — so  wise  in  word  and  counsel,  so 
sound  in  thought  and  project,  and  in  act  so 
swift,  so  unerring,  so  magical — Napoleon  ! 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Following  is  a  list  of  works  which  were  either  read  or  con 
suited  by  the  author  in  the  preparation  of  his  book  : — 

Arndt  :  Die  Mutter  Napoleons.     Leipzig.     1875. 

Adelaide  :   M6moires  historiques  ,  .  .  de  Josephine.    Phila. 

1848. 
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Abrant6s  :   Salon  de  .  .  .  Josephine.    Paris.     1838. 
Armoises  :   Avant  la  Gloire.     Paris.     1899. 
Ader  :  Napoleon  devant  ses  Contemporains.     Brussels.     1826. 
Anon  :   Campagnes  d'ltaUe  .  .  .  Paris.     1872. 
Anon  :  Les  Petits  Appartemens  .  .  .  Paris.     1831. 
Barral  :  Messages  et  Discours  politiques.     Paris.     1896. 
Bailleul  :    Examen  critique  .  .  .  Paris.     1822. 
Bouclon  :   Canova  et  Napoleon.     Paris.     1865. 
Bruehl  :  Napoleon  I.  und  Rom.     Regensburg.     1865. 
Beaufils  :  Les  Amoureuses  de  Napoleon.     Paris.     1905. 
BoNNAL  :    Le  G6nie  de  Napoleon.     Paris.     1897. 
Boudois  :   Napolton  et  la  Soci6t6  de  son  Temps.     1895. 
Bourrienne  :  Memoirs.     Paris.     1830. 
Browning   (0.)  :    The  Boyhood   and   Youth   of   Napoleon. 

London.    1906. 
Beauterne  :  Sentiment  de  Napoleon  .  .  .  Paris.     1864. 
Bonnefons  :   Une  Ennemie  .  .  .  Paris.     1905. 
Barras  :    Memoirs.     Paris.     1895. 
Bausset  :  M^moires.     Paris.     1827. 
Beugnot  :    M(5moires.     Paris.     1866. 
Charvet  :  Le  Souper  de  Beaucaire.     Avignon.     1881. 
Chuquet  :  Ordres  et  Apostilles  .  .  .  Paris.     1911. 
Chuquet  :   In^dits  napol6oniens.     Paris.     1913. 
Chuquet  :   La  Jeunesse  de  Napoleon.     Paris.     1897. 
Chateaubriand  :  Napoleon  racont^  .  .  .  Paris.     1904. 
T  289 


290  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Caresme  :  Bonaparte  lieutenant  en  second.     Paris.     1914. 
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CoPiN  :    Talma  et  I'Empire.     Paris.     1887. 
Constant  (Benjamin)  :   Memoires.     Paris.     1820-1822. 
DuRAND  :     Napoleon    et    Marie    Louise,    1810-1814.     Paris. 

1886. 
Delfau  :   Napoleon  et  I'lnstruction  publique.    Paris.     1902. 
De  Stael  :  De  la  Litterature.     Paris.     1800. 

De  Stael  :  Corinne.     Paris.    . 

De  Stael  :    Delphine.     Paris.     . 

De  Stael  :  Reflexions  on  Suicide.     London.     1813. 

De  Stael  :    Germany.     London.     1813. 

Eckermann  :  Gesprache  mit  Goethe.     Leipzig.     1885. 

Fleischmann  :  Une  Maitresse  .  .  .  Paris.     1908. 

Fleischmann  :    Dialogue  sur  I'Amour.     Paris.     1908. 

FoiSY  :   La  Famille  Bonaparte  depuis  1264.     Paris.     1830. 

Fain  :   Memoires.     Paris.     1908. 

Fischer  :  Goethe  und  Napoleon.     Frauenfeld.     1899. 

Fi^v^E :    Correspondance.     Paris.     1836. 

Fontaines  :    CEuvres.     Paris.     1839. 

FiGEAC  :  Memoires  et  Documents  inedits.     Paris.     1844. 

GuiLLOis  :  Napoleon.     2  vols.     Paris.     1889. 

Gourgaud  :    Discours  de  Napoleon.     Paris.     1826. 

Gonnard  :   Les  Origines  de  la  L^gende.     Paris.     1907. 

Gautier  (P.)  :   Madame  de  Stael  et  Napoleon.     Paris.     1903. 

Georges- We ymer  :  Memoirs  of  Mademoiselle  George.     Paris. 

1909. 
Hinard  :    Napoleon — Ses  Opinions  et  ses  Jugemens.     Paris. 

1854. 
Humphreys  :    Napoleon — ^Thoughts    on    Love  ,  .  .  London. 

1908. 
Harrys  :    Das  Kaiserbuch.     Weimar.     1837. 
HoERSTEL :    Die  Napoleonsinsel.     Berlin.     1908. 
HoLZHAUSEN  :  Der  Erste  Konsul  .  .  .  Bonn.     1900. 
Hopkins  (Tighe)  :    The  Women  Napoleon  Loved.     London. 

1910. 
Hardenberg  :  Denkwiirdigkeiten.     Leipzig.     1877. 
Johnston  :  The  Corsican.     London.     1910. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  291 

KiRCHEiSEN  (F.)  :  Gesprache  Napoleons  des  Ersten.  Stutt- 
gart.    191 1. 

KiRCHEisEN  (G.) :  Die  Frauen  und  Napoleon.  Munich  and 
Leipzig.     1912. 

Lacretelle  :   Analogies  et  Contrastes  .  .  .  Paris.     1837. 

Lecomte  :  Napoleon  et  le  Monde  dramatique.     Paris.     1912. 

Lescure  :  Napoleon  et  sa  Famille.     Paris.     1868. 

LuMBROso  :   Napoleone — La  sua  Corte.  .  .  .     Rome.     1911. 

LuMBRoso  :   Napoleon  etait-il  croyant  ?    Paris.     1910. 

Las  Cases  :    M6morial.     Paris.     1862. 

Lanfrey  :  Napoleon  L     Paris.     1867. 

Laugier  :  Documents  historiques  sur  la  Com^die  Fran^aise- 
Paris.     1853. 

Martel  :  Memoires  et  (Euvres  de  Napoleon.     Paris.     1910. 

Maze-Sencier  :    Les  Foumisseurs  .  .  .  Paris.     1893. 

Masson  :    Napoleon  inconnu.     Paris.     1895. 

Masson  :    Livre  du  Sacre.     Paris.     1908. 

Masson  :    Napoleon  dans  sa  Jeunesse.     Paris.     1907. 

Masson  :    Napoleon  et  les  Fem.mes.     Paris.     1906. 

Masson  :   Huit  Conferences.     Paris.     1909. 

Maricourt  :  Napoleon  dans  sa  Vie  intime.     Paris.     1862. 

M^LiA  :   Les  Idees  de  Stendhal.     Paris.     1910. 

Meneval  :   Napoleon  et  Marie  Louise.     Paris.     1843. 

Meneval  :    Memoires  pour  servir  .  .  .  Paris.     1894. 

Macaggi  :    Napoleon,  Part  IL     Paris.     1895. 

Marquiset  :   Napoleon  stenographic.  .  .  .     Paris.     1913. 

Mouravit  :  Napoleon  bibliophile.     Paris.     1905. 

MiJLLER :  Erinnerungen.     Braunschweig.     1851. 

Napoleon  :  Precis  des  Guerres  de  Frederic.     Paris.     1872 

Napoleon  :   Precis  des  Guerres  de  Turenne.     Paris.     1872. 

Napoleon  :   Precis  des  Guerres  de  Cesar.     Paris.     1836. 

Napoleon  :  Correspondence  \vith  Joseph.     London.     1855. 

Niox  :   Napoleon  et  les  Invalides.     Paris.     1911. 

O'Meara  :   A  Voice  from  St  Helena.     London.     1822. 

Panckoucke  :  CEuvres  de  Napoleon  Bonaparte  (Genealogy, 
Vol.  L).     Paris.     1822. 

Petetin  :   Commentaires  de  Napoleon  L     Paris.     1867. 

Pelet  :    Napoleon  in  Council.     Edinburgh.     1837. 


292  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Peyre  :   Napoleon  et  son  Temps.    Paris.     1888. 

PiNGAUD  :   Bemadotte  .  .  .     Paris.     1901, 

Pacca  :  Memoirs.     London.     1850. 

Randot  :  Napoleon  peint  par  lui-meme.     Paris.     1865. 

Remusat  :  Memoires.     Paris.     1880. 

Remusat  :  Lettres,  1804-1815.     Paris.     1881. 

Rocca  :  Le  Nid  de  I'Aigle.     Paris.     1905. 

Rose  (J.  H.)  :  Life  of  Napoleon.     London.     1913. 

Rose  (J.  H.)  :  Personality  of  Napoleon.     London.     1912. 

Rose  (J.  H.),  Napoleonic  Studies.     London.     1906. 

Rosebery  (Lord)  :    Napoleon  :    The  Last  Phase.     London. 

1904. 
Rosen  (Lew.)  :    Napoleon's  Opera-Glass.     London.     1897. 
Sainte-Beuve  :  Chateaubriand.  .  .  Paris.     1834. 
Skalkowski  :   Concemant  la  Pologne,  1805-1815.     Warsaw. 

1911. 
Sklower  :    Entrevue  de  Napoleon  I.   et  de  Goethe.     Lille. 

1853. 
Stourm  :  Les  Finances  du  Consulat.     Paris.     1902. 
Stendhal  :   Vie  de  Napoleon.     Paris.     1876. 
SoREL  :    Bonaparte  et  Hoche.     Paris.     1896. 
Talleyrand  :   Memoirs.     Paris.     1891. 
Thibaudeau  :  Histoire  de  la  France  .  .  .  Paris.     1834. 
Tnif  BAULT :   Memoires.     Paris,     1893. 
Turquan  :  Napoldon  amoureux.     Paris.     1897. 
Tschudi  :    La  M^re  de  Napoleon.     Lausanne.     1910. 
"  Un  Croyant  "  :   Paroles  Imperiales.     Paris.     1848. 
ViNOT :   Notice  historique  sur  .  .  .  Brienne.     Paris.     1888. 
Vach^e  :   Napoleon  en  Campagne.     Paris.     1913. 
ViLLEMAiN  :  Souvenirs  contemporains.     Paris.     1854. 
Welschinger  :    La  Censure  sous  le  Premier  Empire.     Paris. 

1882. 
Welschinger  :    Le  Pape  et  I'Empereur  Napoleon.     Paris. 

1905. 
Wairy  :   Memoires   de  Constant,  premier   valet  .  .  .  Paris. 

1830. 


INDEX 


A 

Accent,  Napoleon's  bad,  55 

Account  of  Corsica,  56 

Acta  Diurna,  227 

Acton,  Lord,  19 

/Eyieid,  Books  I.,  II.,  VI.,  51 

^sop,  work  of,  51 

Agamemnon,  82 

Aime -Martin,  M.,  237 

Ajaccio,  2?)  et  seq. 

Alcibiades,   162 

Alexander  I.,  Emperor,  loi  passim 

Alexander  VI.,  Pope,  173 

Alexander  the  Great,  41 

Allemagne,  De  !' ,  247 

Ambition,  Napoleon  and,  47 

Ami  des  Lois,  I' ,  223 

Antichambre,  1',  71 

ApoUonius  of  Tyana,  57 

Arc  de  Triomphe,  136 

Architects,  Napoleon  dislikes,  134 

Aristotle,  32 

Arnault,  dramatist,  68,  81 

Artaud,  M.,  diplomat,  164 

Art  collection.  Napoleon's,  138,  139, 

140 
Artists'  fees,  134 
Atala,  259,  261 
Athalie,  tragedy,  112 
Auerstadt,  44 
Augereau,  Marshal,  235 
Aune,  L6on,  42 
Austerlitz,  43 
Auxonne,  garrison  town,  54,  55 

B 

Baciocchi,  Signor,  29 
Baour-Lormian,  68 
Barrow,  historian,  54 
Bardre,  220 

Beyle,  H.  (Stendhal),  264  tt  stq. 
Benckendorff,  Count,  10 1 
Bellum  Cimbricum,  116 
Berthier,  Marshal,  ii8  passim 
Beethoven,  1S2 

293 


Beugnot,  orator,  228 
Bernadotte,  Marshal,  241 
Beauterne,  ChevaUer  de,  193 
Berton,  R.  P.,  53 
Beaconsfield  (Disraeli),  45 
Bible,  Napoleon's,  59 
Biogi,  artist,  254  et  seq. 
Bonaparte  pire,  27  passim 
Bozzi,  Signor,  30 
Bozzi,  family  of,  38 
Bossuet,  52  ' 
Boileau,  52 
BosweU,  James,  56 
Bourgoin,  Mademoiselle,  83 
Bourrienne,  de,  115  passim 
Bonaparte  Crossing  the  Alps,  146 
Borghese  Marbles,  167 
Bonaparte  et  les  Bourbons,  228 
Brienne,  school  of,  50 
Brutus  (Voltaire),  66 
Britannicus,  78 
Brizzi,  tenor,  181 
Brumaire,  Day  of,  219 
Brunswick,  Duke  of,  246 
Brigadier  GSrard  {\.  Conan  Doyle), 

250 
Buona  Parte,  33 
Buonaparte,  Francis,  34 
Buonaparte,  Gabriel, 
Buonaparte,  Ludovico  (More),  34 
Buonaparte,  Jerome  (1579),  34 
Buonaparte,  Augustus,  35 
Buonaparte,  Sebastian,  37 
Buonaparte,  Joseph  (1660),  38 
Buonaparte,  Sebastian  Nicholas.  38 
Buonaparte,  Nicolo,  68 
Buffon,  54 

Bulletin  de  Paris,  220 
Byron,  Lord,  263  passim 


Cacault,  diplomat,  159 
Carthaginians  in  Corsica,  24 
Capulets  and  Montagues,  27 
Calonne,  M.  de, 


294 


INDEX 


Caesars,  Byzantine,  33 
Caesars,  Roman,  33 
Castracani,  Castruccio,  33 
Caesar,  Julius,  41 
Caesar,  works  of.  51 
Camoens,  work  of,  51 
Canova,  158  et  seq. 
Campo-Formio,  159 
Catholicity  and  Art,  172 
Catechism,  the  Imperial,  209  et  seq. 
Caprara,  Cardinal,  215  e/  seq. 
C6sar,  coachman,  91 
Charlemagne  and  Corsica,  25 
Charles  VI.,  Emperor,  26 
Churchill,  family  of,  32 
Charles  XII.,  43 
Chateau,  R.  P.,  53 
Choiseul,  Due  de,  70 
Chaptal,  Minister,  83 
Chameroi,  Mademoiselle,  83 
Chantilly,  chateau  de,  133 
Chatsworth  House,  165 
Chaband,  Monsieur,  237,  238 
Christ,  Napoleon  on,  196 
Chateaubriand,  259  et  seq. 
Chuquet,  biographer,  52,  56 
Cicero,  works  of,  51 
Cinna,  93 

Claudius,  Emperor,  124 
Cluny,  chateau  de,  133 
Cimarosa,  183 
Corsica,  20  et  seq. 
Corsican  Vendette,  22 
Colonna  gens,  30,  33 
Cond6,  42 

Cornelius  Nepos,  51 
Corneille,  18,  51,  62  et  seq. 
Confrat  Social,  le,  55 
Constant,  Benjamin,  237  et  seq. 
Constant,  body  servant,  82  passim 
Com6die  Fran9aise,  100  passim 
Corregio  :    Saint  JerSme,  138 
Coronation  of  Napoleon,  151  et  seq. 
Consalvi,  Cardinal,  160 
Correspondance,   180 
Courrier  de  VArmie.  231 
Commons,  House  of,  195 
Crescentini,  tenor,  181 
Cromwell,  Oliver,  32 
Cumberland,  Duke  of,  43 

D 

Daedalus  and  Icarus,  158 
Davout,  Marshal,  44 


Daru,  of&cial,  109 

Dazincourt,  M.,  112 

David,  Imperial  painter,  142  et  seq. 

David,  J.  L.  I.,  biographer,  146 

Denou,  an  intellectual,  58 

Decrds,  official,  130 

Deists  and  God,  192 

Delphine.  241 

De  I'Allemagne,  247 

De  Virts  (Nepos),  51 

De  la  LittSrature,  240 

Diodorus  Siculus,  25 

Disraeli,  Benjamin,  45 

Dion  Cassius,  124 

Dow,  artist,  138 

Drost,  Barou,  27 

Douglas,  Marquis  of,  155 

Dreyfous,  Maurice,  260   . 

Duval,  Alex.,  70 

Dupaty,  dramatist,  71 

Duroc,  Earl  Marshal,  76 

Durer,  A.,  138 

Duphot,  General,  259 


EcKERMANN,  secretary,  107,  108 
Education,  Napoleon  on,  206 
Elisa  Bonaparte,  56 
En  Corse  (Merim6e),  29 
Encyclopaedists.  264 
Enghien,  Due  d',  113,  201,  223,  262 
Erasmus,  works  of,  51 
Erfurt,  Congress  of,  108  et  seq. 
Eroica,  symphony,  182 
Esprit  des  Lois,  55 
Etruscans  in  Corsica,  24 
Eutropius,  51 


F^NfeLON,  Archbishop,  52 
Fesch,  Cardinal,  197 
Fievee,  editor,  220  et  seq. 
F16chier,  52 
Fleet,  the  (prison),  27 
Fleury,  director,  91 
Fontanes,  M.  de,  117 
Fontenelle,  18 
Fouche  (Otranto),  219  et  seq. 
Frederick  II.,  of  Prussia,  43 
Freemasonry,  57 
Friedland,  battle  of,  116 


INDEX 


295 


Gautier,  critic,  237 

Gazette  de  France ,  fa ,  2 1 8 

Georgics,  Fourth  Book  of  the,  51 

G6nin,  R.  P.,  53 

Genoa, 20 

George,  Mademoiselle,  88  et  seq. 

Genres  tranchds,  119 

Gepp,  Professor,  209 

Genlis,  Madame  de,  220 

GSnie  dii  Christianisme,  226,  260 

"  Georges  Sand,"  242 

G6rard,  painter,  137  passim 

Gibbon,  historian,  59 

Goethe,  J.  W.  von,  32,  106  et  seq. 

Gourgaud,  Baron,  41  passim 

Gobelins,  les,  136 

Greeks  in  Corsica,  24 

Graudmaison,  poet,  81 

Gregory  VII.  (Hildebrand) ,  203 

Grotthus,  F.  von,  247 

Gros,  painter,  137  passim 

Grassini,  la,  161  et  seq. 

Guelphs  and  Ghibellines,  27 

Gustavus  Adolphus,  43 

Guzman,     Mademoiselle     (Empress 

Eug6nie),  267 
Guizot,  historian,  226 


Jacobin  Press,  the,  239 
Janfeld,  podesid,  33 
Janin,  Jules,  loi 
Jena,  battle  of,  44 
Jerome  Bonaparte,  10 1  passim 
Jewry  and  Napoleon,  57 
Joseph  Bonaparte,  55  passim 
Josephine,  Empress,  161  passim 
Journalism,  Napoleon  and,   218 

seq. 
Journal  des  Dibats,  218  et  seq. 
Journal  de  Paris,  218 
Journal  Unrvetsel,  le,  230 
Julian  House,  the,  32 
Junot,  General,  46 
Julius  II.,  Pope,  173 


K 

King  of  Rome,  the,  206 
Knights  of  Malta,  52 
Korsakoff,  General,  43 
Kotzebue,  patriot,  114 


H 

Habsburg,  House  of,  32 
Hamlet,  Napoleon  sees,  63 
Hannibal,  41 
Hector,  a  tragedy,  69 
Hennequin,  artist,  134 
Henri  IV.,  41 
Hinard,  Damas,  42 
Hobhouse,  Cam,  265 
Hoche,  General,  44 
Hohenlinden,  battle  of,  45 
Homer,  51  passim 
Horace,  works  of,  51 


Iberians  in  Corsica,  24 

Iliad,  the,  72 

Institut  de  France,  122 

Invalides,  Les,  133,  145 

Iphigenia,  89 

Isabey  :  Malmaison  picture,  147 

Italian  Campaign,  1796,  43  passim 


La  Bruy^re,  20,  51 

Lawyer,  the  Corsican.  35 

La  Villetta,  estate,  37 

La  F6re,  Battery  XII .  of,  58 

Lannes,  Marshal,  62,  109  passim 

La  Vedova,  play,  68 

La  Fontaine,  73 

Las  Cases,  Memoirs,  80 

Lansdowne  House,  164 

La  Rochefoucauld,  de,  243 

Les  Templiers,  64,  65 

Les  Bardes,  opera,  184 

Lemercier,  poet,  81 

Lessing,  114 

Le  Moniteur,  109  passim 

Lefivre,  Robert,  138 

Lebrun, 150 

Leo  X.,  Pope,  173 

Lesueur,  composer,  184 

Lemarrois,  General,  259 

Ligurians  in  Corsica,  24 

Livy,  Book  XXL,  51 

Library,  Napoleon's,  59 

Lockhart,  historian,  19 


296 


INDEX 


Louis  Bonaparte,  56  passim 
Louis  XI.,  41 
Louis  XIV.,  41 
Louis  XVI.,  21,  31 
Louis  XVIII.,  165 
Lunegiana,  canton,  20 
Luther,  Martin,  32 
Lucca,  dictator  of,  33 
Lucian,  work  of,  51 
Lucien  Bonaparte,  56  passim 
Luce  de  Lancival,  69 
Lyons,  A.cademy  of,  57 


M 

Mably,  historian,  34 
Marius,  dictator,  32 
Marlborough,  Duke  of,  32,  42 
Mala  Parte,  33 
Macedon,  House  of,  33 
Marceau,  General,  44 
Marengo,  battle  of,  45 
Massena,  Marshal,  45 
Manasseh,  tribe  of,  45 
Massillon,  52 
Marigny,  historian,  54 
Macbeth,  Napoleon  sees,  63 
Machiavclli,  54  passim 
Maret,  Minister,  109 
Mahomet  (Voltaire),  115  passim 
Marly,  chateau  de,  133 
Marie  Louise,  166  ei  seq. 
Masson,  Frederic,  170  passim 
Marcus  Aurelius,  174 
Marchesi,  tenor,  185 
Manning,  Cardinal,  190 
Macaulay,  Lord,  192,  220 
Merim6e,  P.  de,  29 
Memoirs  of  de  Grammont,  5g 
Medici  Venxis,  138 
M6neval,  M.  de,  181 
M6hul,  composer,  180 
Meaux,  Bishop  of  (Bossuet),  210 
Mercure  de  France,  225 
Mir  ope  (Voltaire),  83 
Milton,  51 

Military  School,  Paris,  53 
Mirabeau,  M.  de,  54 
Mincio,  operations  on  the,  234 
Moreau,  General,  45 
Mouravit,  G.,  50 
Montesquieu,  Baron  de,  55 
Moli^re,  his  place,  64  passim 
Montmorency,  de,  243 


Murat,  Joachim,  97  passim 
Miiller,  Chancellor,  107 
Miiller,  Johann  von,  116  passim 
Music  and  Politics,  180 


N 


Nansouty,  M.  de,  120 

Napoleon :   the  Last   Phase   (Rose- 

bery),  18 
"  Napoleon."  variously  spelled,  28 
Napoleon  III.,  193,  201 
Narbonne,  M.  de,  232 
Newman,  Cardinal,  19,  190 
New  Blood,  a  theory,  31 
Neuhof,  Theodore,  26 
Ney,  Marshal,  46  passim 
Neo-Christian  notions,  lyi 
Necker,  banker,  238 
Norvins,  M.  de,  199 


O 


Opinions  of  Napoleon,  42 
Oratory,  three  styles  of,  31 
Organic  Articles,  the,  209 
Ornano,  Jacopo,  26 
Ornano,  Signor,  30 
Orsini,  family  of,  33 
Ossian,  songs  of,  56 
Othello,  Napoleon  sees,  63 
Otranto  (Fouchd),  219  et  seq. 
Ouvrard,  array  contractor,  10 1 


Pabr,  Monsieur,  183  et  seq. 

Paisiello,  composer,  182 

Pale,  the  Corsican,  35 

Paoli,  27 

Paravisino  (Paravicini),  20 

Pauline  Bonaparte,  153  passim 

Petrus  Cyrnceus,  21 

Phaedrus,  Fables  of,  51 

Pietra-Santa,  20 

Pius  VII.,  Pope,  160  passim 

Plato's  Republic,  54 

"  Politics  and  Fate,"  66 

Pont  des  Arts,  Paris,  133 


INDEX 


297 


Pozzo  di  Borgo,  22,  33 
Portalis,  M.  de,  209 
Priests  and  politics,  173 
Prudh'on,  137 
Publicistt,  le,  223 


R 


Racine,  51  passim 
Ramolini  family,  20 
Ramolini,  Letitia,  27 
Rape  of  Sabine  Women,  143,  144 
Rationalism,  scientific,  264 
Rawdon  Crawley,  198 
Raynouard,  playwright,  65 
Razel,  writer,  24 
Regnault,  painter,  151 
Reichstadt,  Duke  of,  59 
Reinhardt,  Graf  von,  no 
Rembrandt,  138 
Religion  and  Art,  172 
Remusat,  Madame  de,  41  passim 
Remusat,  Monsieur  de,  41  passim 
Richard  III.  of  England,  34 
Rigel,  pianist,  80 
Rivoli,  battle  of,  255,  257 
RivoU,  dukedom  of,  45 
Roederer,  official,  47 
Rocquain,  Felix,  219 
Rocca,  Monsieur  de,  249 
Rossini,  composer,  182 
Rostopchin,  M.,  248 
Rousseau,  J.  J.,  53  passim 
Roustan,  mameluke,  91,  97 
Royalist  Press,  239 
Rubens,  P.  P.,  138 
Rudolph  of  Habsburg,  32 


Sidnnia,  45 

"  Sixifime  latine,"  50 

Solus  :   a  degree,  62 

Sonper  de  Beaucaire,  58 

"  Soul  of  Mihtarism,"  269 

St  Helena,  41  passim 

Stagira,  32 

Stael,  Augustus  de,  244 

Stael,  Madame  de,  234  et  seq. 

Stein,  Baron,  248 

Strabo  on  Corsica,  25 

Suard,  Monsieur,  117,223,  224 

Suetonius,  124 


Tacitus,  121  et  seq. 

Talma,  67,  76  et  seq. 

Talleyrand,  62 

Tartuffe  (Mohdre),  64 

Tasso,  work  of,  51 

Tilimaqiie,  120 

T6niers,  David,  138 

The  Wolf  and  the  Lamb,  73 

Theocritus,  work  of,  51 

Thiebault,  historian,  46 

Thiers:  coronation  sketch,  148,  149, 

200 
Thirty  Years'  War,  43 
Titus,  Emperor,  174 
Tott,  Baron,  54 
Toumai,  See  of,  197 
Trajan,  Emperor,  174 
Treviso,  records  of,  21 
Troy,  Siege  of,  71 
Turenne.  4.2 
Tusoli,  Maria,  38 
Tuscany,  Grand  Duke  of,  138 


Saint  Martin,  Abbey,  133 
Sallust,  works  of ,  51 
Sapieha,  Prince,  89,  92 
Saracens  in  Corsica,  25 
Saxe,  Marshal,  43 
Schiller,  114 
Schlegel,  author,  242 
Seneca  on  Corsica,  21 
S6gur,  de,  family,  243 
Shakespeare,  62,  63,  73  passim 
Shaw,  Lifeguardsman,  42 
Sifiyes,  Abb6,  237 


VfeLY,  historian,  73 
Venice,  oligarchic,  175 
Venus  and  Adonii,  159 
Verona,  27 
Vertot,  Abb6,  52 
Vignon,  131 
Villa  Buonaparte.  28 
Villemain,  Monsieur  de,  232 
Villoteau,  singer.  81 
Volnais,  actress,  91 
Voltaire,  51  passim 


298 


INDEX 


w 

Wag  RAM,  battle  of,  42 
Walewska,  Madame,  268 
Walpole,  Horace,  27 
Waterloo,  42  passim 
Waverley,  author  of,  31 
Wellesley,  family  of,  32 
Wellington,  Duke  of,  32,  187 
Werther,  Sorrows  of,  62 


Wieland,  114  et  seq. 
Wurmser,  Marshal,  43 
Wurtemburg,  Prince  of,  26 


ZiNGARELLi,  Signor, 
Zola .  Rome,  169 
Zurich,  battle  of,  45 


IPfiSOJsgfcA^^DUE 

miA  198 

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CAVLORO 

PRINTCO  IN  U.S.A. 

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Grant,  Hamil,  J«62- 

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001  374  064 


3   1210  00275  0691 


